Set custom expiration times / TTL

You can configure custom key expiration times (TTL) for keys written to Redis by using the expire parameter in the output section of the job file. This parameter specifies the duration, in seconds, that a newly created key will remain in Redis before being automatically deleted. If the expire parameter is not provided, the keys will persist indefinitely.

There are two ways to set the expiration time:

• as a static value
• as a dynamic value using a JMESPath or SQL expression

Static expiration time

The following example sets the expiration time to 100 seconds for all keys:

output:
  - uses: redis.write
    with:
      data_type: hash
      expire: 100

Dynamic expiration time

You can use a JMESPath or SQL expression to set the expiration time dynamically when it is based on a field in the source data. For example, you can set the expiration time to the value of a ttl field in the source data:

output:
  - uses: redis.write
    with:
      data_type: hash
      expire:
        expression: ttl
        language: jmespath

Dynamic expiration time based on a date, datetime, or timestamp field

In some cases, you can also set the expiration time based on a field that contains a date, datetime, or timestamp value, but it depends on the source database and the data types it supports. See the examples below for your specific source database and data type.

There are two main approaches you can use to set the expiration time based on a date, datetime, or timestamp field:

• For values representing an elapsed time since epoch start (in milliseconds, for example), you have to convert the value to seconds since epoch and then subtract the current time (also in seconds since epoch). The difference between the two is the time until expiration.

  output:
      - uses: redis.write
        with:
          data_type: hash
          expire:
            # To set the expiration time to a date field, convert the value to
            # seconds (e.g. divide it by 1000 if the fields has milliseconds precision) 
            # and subtract the current time in seconds since epoch.
            expression: EXPIRES_TIMESTAMP / 1000 - STRFTIME('%s', 'now')
            language: sql
  

• For values matching the subset of ISO 8601 supported by SQLite (for example, 2023-10-01T12:00:00, 2023-10-01T12:00:00Z, or 2025-06-05T13:40:14.784000+02:00), you can use the STRFTIME function to convert the value to seconds since epoch and subtract the current time in seconds since epoch from it.

  output:
    - uses: redis.write
      with:
        data_type: hash
        expire:
          language: sql
          expression: STRFTIME('%s', EXPIRATION_TS) - STRFTIME('%s', 'now')
  

For more examples of how to manipulate date and time values, see Formatting date and time values.