HexLab

The pilot

Prompt caching

A 7-part series on prompt caching, and why it decides what you pay. Everything you need to stop paying full price by accident.

SKILL UNLOCKED · Cache Freeze

Hex's intro, all seven episodes and the summary in one go: 10:53.

Episodes

  1. Ep 1: Why your second message is cheaper

    6.64 credits, then 0.57: same words, a tenth of the price

    Length 1:19

  2. Ep 2: What the model does with your text

    tokens → vectors → attention: the work the cache saves

    Length 1:14

  3. Ep 3: The prefix

    same start: ~90% cheaper; change the top and pay again

    Length 1:16

  4. Ep 4: The cache isn't one box

    each version gets its own entry

    Length 0:51

  5. Ep 5: What breaks the cache

    models, effort, skills, MCP: miss. AGENTS.md: wait for a new session

    Length 1:00

  6. Ep 6: Time to live

    5 min by default, 1 h if your tool asks

    Length 1:17

  7. Ep 7: Tools, system, messages

    touch the top, rebuild the lot

    Length 1:06

  8. Summary: What have we learned today?

    all seven episodes in one recap, and Hex unlocks Cache Freeze

    Length 1:29