Redis Key Naming Convention - Hierarchical Key Design

Problem

Redis keys like "user_123_session" and "sess-user-123" created inconsistently make it impossible to track what keys exist or search with KEYS *.

Solution

const KEY_PREFIX = 'myapp';

export const keys = {
  conversation: (id: string) => `${KEY_PREFIX}:conv:${id}`,
  conversationMessages: (id: string) => `${KEY_PREFIX}:conv:${id}:messages`,
  userSettings: (id: string) => `${KEY_PREFIX}:settings:${id}`,
  userSession: (id: string) => `${KEY_PREFIX}:session:${id}`,
  allConversations: () => `${KEY_PREFIX}:conversations`,
  monthlyIndex: (ym: string) => `${KEY_PREFIX}:conv:month:${ym}`,
  cacheProduct: (id: string) => `${KEY_PREFIX}:cache:product:${id}`,
};

// Usage
await redis.set(keys.conversation('abc123'), JSON.stringify(data));
await redis.del(keys.userSession('user1'));

Key Points

• Colons (:) as hierarchy separators are the Redis community standard. GUI tools like RedisInsight display this structure as a tree.
• Generating keys via functions eliminates typos and enables IDE autocompletion. String literals make future refactoring impossible.
• A KEY_PREFIX allows multiple apps to coexist on the same Redis instance without key collisions.