Legacy (In-Process Mode)

Warning

These pages document LMCache’s original in-process mode, where LMCache ran inside the inference engine process (e.g. via LMCacheConnectorV1 on vLLM). In-process mode is deprecated; new deployments should use Multiprocess (MP) mode.

Background

LMCache began as an in-process library embedded directly in the serving engine. The multiprocess refactor moved LMCache into a standalone lmcache server and made an asynchronous prefetching architecture the default – a LOOKUP followed by background L2→L1 loads – alongside process isolation, shared caching across engine instances, and multi-tier (L1/L2) storage.

MP is now the recommended mode and is on track to support essentially everything in-process mode did. The pages below are kept for users still on in-process mode and as a historical reference while MP closes any remaining gaps; where a feature already has an MP equivalent, prefer the MP docs.

The corresponding serving-engine entry points live under lmcache.inprocess.integration. The previous lmcache.integration import paths remain available as compatibility aliases for existing deployments.

• More Examples
  • KV Cache Offloading
  • KV Cache Sharing
  • Disaggregated Prefill
  • Standalone Starter
  • Detailed Examples
• KV Cache
  • Storage Backends
  • Async Loading
  • Using Different Caching Policies
  • P2P KV Cache Sharing
• Using NIXL
  • Examples
• KV Cache Optimizations
  • Blending
  • Compression
  • Layerwise KV Transfer
• LMCache Controller
  • Overview
  • Key Features
  • Quick Start
• API Reference
  • Configuring LMCache
  • vLLM Dynamic Connector
  • KV Caching for Multimodal Models with vLLM
  • Adding new storage backends
• Internal API Server
  • Controller APIs
  • Dynamic Backend Management
• Controller WebUI
  • Overview
  • Quick Start
  • Configuration Options
  • Dashboard Features
  • Related Documentation
• Non-KV Caching
  • Encoder caching
  • Hidden states
• Production
  • Observability
  • Performance Tuning
  • KV Cache Events
• Developer Guide
  • Architecture Overview
  • Basic Check Tool
  • Remote Storage Plugins