README

Deliberate cache control for TYPO3: protect the warmed system caches from destructive backend flushes between deployments, and flush precisely the caches you mean to. Editors keep clearing page caches, deployments keep flushing everything, and you can clear a single cache (e.g. fluid_template) instead of wiping the whole system group — while the bulk flush of warmed system caches stays locked in production.

Installation

composer require wazum/cache-guard

No setup needed — the defaults lock the system cache group in Production contexts.

Locking system-cache flushes

Between deployments the warmed system caches (compiled PHP code, Fluid templates, l10n, …) should not be wiped by a stray backend click. Cache Guard prevents that in production-like contexts, while everyday page-cache clearing keeps working.

What it blocks

• Flushing of configured cache groups (default: system) in configured application contexts (default: Production, matched as prefix, so Production/Staging is included).
• The full opcache reset triggered by "Flush all caches"; targeted single-file opcache invalidation keeps working.
• It replaces the "Flush all caches" entry in the clear-cache toolbar with a disabled notice while the lock is active; the dropdown and "Flush frontend caches" stay in place.

Note

Intercepting the opcache reset requires TYPO3 13.4+ — on 12.4 the cache-group lock applies, but the opcache reset is not intercepted.

What it leaves alone

• "Flush frontend caches" (pages) keeps working for editors.
• CLI: vendor/bin/typo3 cache:flush always works — deployments are unaffected.
• The Install Tool / Maintenance "Flush cache" and the DI container cache (system-maintainer territory).
• Tag-based invalidation (flushCachesByTag/flushCachesByTags) — targeted invalidation is not a bulk clear.

Configuration

Admin Tools → Settings → Extension Configuration → cache_guard:

Defense in depth (optional)

Hide the "Flush all caches" entry per user/group via User TSconfig (UI only, the lock above is the actual enforcement):

options.clearCache.all = 0

Flushing individual caches (CLI)

Clear only specific caches without wiping a whole group — e.g. recompile Fluid templates after a deployment without touching the warmed PHP-code, l10n or DI caches:

vendor/bin/typo3 cache:flush --cache fluid_template
vendor/bin/typo3 cache:flush --cache fluid_template,l10n

All identifiers must be valid or nothing is flushed. The dependency injection cache is not flushable this way — use cache:flush --group di.

Run the option without a value (or with an unknown name) at a terminal to pick interactively:

vendor/bin/typo3 cache:flush --cache

In CI and deployment, pass --no-interaction (-n) so a missing or unknown identifier fails with a clear error instead of opening the picker:

vendor/bin/typo3 cache:flush --cache fluid_template --no-interaction

Requirements

• TYPO3 12.4, 13.4 or 14.3
• PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 or 8.5 (TYPO3 12.4 runs on 8.2–8.3)

License

GPL-2.0-or-later — see LICENSE.