Should Next.js App Router provide a built-in middleware layer for route-level caching and revalidation?

[SHAWON0c]

💡 Idea / Discussion

With the growing use of Server Actions and dynamic rendering, I’ve been thinking about how we handle route-level caching and revalidation in the Next.js App Router.

Right now, we rely on manual strategies — using revalidateTag, revalidatePath, or custom middleware logic. But as projects scale, it gets harder to manage cache invalidation per route efficiently.

🧩 Proposal

Would it make sense for Next.js to provide a built-in middleware layer or decorator-like API for caching at the route level? Something like:

export const revalidate = 3600;

export const routeCache = defineCache({
  key: (params) => `product:${params.id}`,
  staleTime: 60 * 5,
  strategy: "stale-while-revalidate",
});