cachebro

File cache with diff tracking for AI coding agents. Powered by Turso, a high-performance embedded database.

Agents waste most of their token budget re-reading files they've already seen. cachebro fixes this: on first read it caches the file, on subsequent reads it returns either "unchanged" (one line instead of the whole file) or a compact diff of what changed. Drop-in replacement for file reads that agents adopt on their own.

Benchmark

We ran a controlled A/B test: the same refactoring task on a 268-file TypeScript codebase (opencode), same agent (Claude Opus), same prompt. The only difference: cachebro enabled vs disabled.

	Without cachebro	With cachebro
Total tokens	158,248	117,188
Tool calls	60	58
Files touched	12	12

26% fewer tokens. Same task, same result. cachebro saved ~33,000 tokens by serving cached reads and compact diffs instead of full file contents.

The savings compound over sequential tasks on the same codebase:

Task	Tokens Used	Tokens Saved by Cache	Cumulative Savings
1. Add session export command	62,190	2,925	2,925
2. Add --since flag to session list	41,167	15,571	18,496
3. Add session stats subcommand	63,169	35,355	53,851

By task 3, cachebro saved 35,355 tokens in a single task — a 36% reduction. Over the 3-task sequence, 53,851 tokens saved out of 166,526 consumed (~24%).

Agents adopt it without being told

We tested whether agents would use cachebro voluntarily. We launched a coding agent with cachebro configured as an MCP server but gave the agent no instructions about it. The agent chose cachebro.read_file over the built-in Read tool on its own. The tool descriptions alone were enough.

How it works

First read:   agent reads src/auth.ts → cachebro caches content + hash → returns full file
Second read:  agent reads src/auth.ts → hash unchanged → returns "[unchanged, 245 lines, 1,837 tokens saved]"
After edit:   agent reads src/auth.ts → hash changed → returns unified diff (only changed lines)
Partial read: agent reads lines 50-60 → edit changed line 200 → returns "[unchanged in lines 50-60]"

The cache persists in a local Turso (SQLite-compatible) database. Content hashing (SHA-256) detects changes. No network, no external services, no configuration beyond a file path.

Installation

npx cachebro init     # auto-configures Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode

That's it. Restart your editor and cachebro is active. Agents discover it automatically.

Or configure manually — add to your MCP config (.claude.json, .cursor/mcp.json, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cachebro": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["cachebro", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

Usage

As an MCP server (recommended)

The MCP server exposes 4 tools:

Tool	Description
read_file	Read a file with caching. Returns full content on first read, "unchanged" or diff on subsequent reads. Supports offset/limit for partial reads.
read_files	Batch read multiple files with caching.
cache_status	Show stats: files tracked, tokens saved.
cache_clear	Reset the cache.

Agents discover these tools automatically and prefer them over built-in file reads because the tool descriptions advertise token savings.

As a CLI

cachebro serve      # Start the MCP server
cachebro status     # Show cache statistics
cachebro help       # Show help

Set CACHEBRO_DIR to control where the cache database is stored (default: .cachebro/ in the current directory).

As an SDK

import { createCache } from "cachebro";

const { cache, watcher } = createCache({
  dbPath: "./my-cache.db",
  sessionId: "my-session-1",  // each session tracks reads independently
  watchPaths: ["."],          // optional: watch for file changes
});

await cache.init();

// First read — returns full content, caches it
const r1 = await cache.readFile("src/auth.ts");
// r1.cached === false
// r1.content === "import { jwt } from ..."

// Second read — file unchanged, returns confirmation
const r2 = await cache.readFile("src/auth.ts");
// r2.cached === true
// r2.content === "[cachebro: unchanged, 245 lines, 1837 tokens saved]"
// r2.linesChanged === 0

// After file is modified — returns diff
const r3 = await cache.readFile("src/auth.ts");
// r3.cached === true
// r3.diff === "--- a/src/auth.ts\n+++ b/src/auth.ts\n@@ -10,3 +10,4 @@..."
// r3.linesChanged === 3

// Partial read — only the lines you need
const r4 = await cache.readFile("src/auth.ts", { offset: 50, limit: 10 });
// Returns lines 50-59, or "[unchanged in lines 50-59]" if nothing changed there

// Stats
const stats = await cache.getStats();
// { filesTracked: 12, tokensSaved: 53851, sessionTokensSaved: 33205 }

// Cleanup
watcher.close();

Architecture

packages/
  sdk/     cachebro — the core library
           - CacheStore: content-addressed file cache backed by an embedded database
           - FileWatcher: fs.watch wrapper for change notification
           - computeDiff: line-based unified diff
  cli/     cachebro — batteries-included CLI + MCP server

Database: Single Turso database file with file_versions (content-addressed, keyed by path + hash), session_reads (per-session read pointers), and stats/session_stats tables. Multiple sessions and branch switches are handled correctly — each session tracks which version it last saw.

Change detection: On every read, cachebro hashes the current file content and compares it to the cached hash. Same hash = unchanged. Different hash = compute diff, update cache. No polling, no watchers required for correctness — the hash is the source of truth.

Token estimation: ceil(characters * 0.75). Rough but directionally correct for code. Good enough for the "tokens saved" metric.

License

MIT