Definition
In the context of RAG and AI Agents, Memcached is a high-speed, ephemeral key-value store used to cache prompt templates, serialized session states, or deterministic LLM responses to minimize API costs and retrieval latency. It acts as a transient memory layer to prevent redundant processing of identical inputs across a distributed agent network.
Caching vs. Vector Storage: It handles exact-key retrieval for speed, not semantic similarity search based on embeddings.
"An 'Express Pass' desk at a library that keeps the ten most requested books on the counter instead of making the librarian fetch them from the basement every time."
- Semantic Cache(Advanced Alternative)
- TTL (Time To Live)(Prerequisite)
- Cold Start(Performance Context)
Conceptual Overview
In the context of RAG and AI Agents, Memcached is a high-speed, ephemeral key-value store used to cache prompt templates, serialized session states, or deterministic LLM responses to minimize API costs and retrieval latency. It acts as a transient memory layer to prevent redundant processing of identical inputs across a distributed agent network.
Disambiguation
Caching vs. Vector Storage: It handles exact-key retrieval for speed, not semantic similarity search based on embeddings.
Visual Analog
An 'Express Pass' desk at a library that keeps the ten most requested books on the counter instead of making the librarian fetch them from the basement every time.