skills/redis-development/rules/ram-limits.md

title	impact	impactDescription	tags	description	alwaysApply
Configure Memory Limits and Eviction Policies	HIGH	Prevents out-of-memory crashes and unpredictable behavior	memory, maxmemory, eviction, lru, ttl	Configure Memory Limits and Eviction Policies	true

Configure Memory Limits and Eviction Policies

Always configure maxmemory and an eviction policy to prevent Redis from consuming all available memory.

Correct: Set explicit memory limits.

maxmemory 2gb
maxmemory-policy allkeys-lru

Policy	Use Case
volatile-lru	Evict keys with TTL, least recently used first
allkeys-lru	Evict any key, least recently used first
volatile-ttl	Evict keys closest to expiration
noeviction	Return errors when memory is full (use for critical data)

Incorrect: Running Redis without memory limits.

# No maxmemory set - Redis will use all available RAM
# Can cause OOM killer to terminate Redis or other processes

Memory optimization tips:

• Use Hashes for small objects (more memory-efficient than separate keys)
• Use OBJECT ENCODING key to check how Redis stores your data
• Use MEMORY USAGE key to check individual key memory consumption
• Enable compression in your client for large values

Reference: Redis Memory Optimization