Intent to Prototype: cachehint attribute of script element

[Chromestatus]

Contact emails

tn...@chromium.org

Explainer

https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/inline-script-cache-hint

Specification

https://html.spec.whatwg.org

Summary

Allowing Web developers to provide hints to the browser about whether an inline script should be cached. This feature currently works on top of Chrome's inline script caching mechanism (https://chromestatus.com/feature/5132993816559616?gate=6261752376459264). See the explainer of this feature.

Blink component

Blink>HTML>Script

Web Feature ID

script

Motivation

Chrome has some compilation caching layer for inline scripts, which identifies the cache-eligible scripts by heuristics. However, there were no ways for Web developers to tell the browser which scripts are temporary and which are universal among their sites. The new `cachehint` attribute provides a way to do it and helps developers speed up loading of their web sites.

Initial public proposal

No information provided

Goals for experimentation

None

Requires code in //chrome?

False

Tracking bug

https://crbug.com/505063237

Estimated milestones

No milestones specified

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/4891009419968512?gate=6234840262377472

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez]

Seems like this would also be useful for `<style>`, `<link>`, or even
`<img>` elements as well, right?

Cheers,
-- Emilio

[Takashi Nakayama]

Thanks for your feedback, Emilio-san.

Yes, it may be useful for inline CSS, but since HTTP cache-control headers serve well for external resources, `<link>` and `<img>` may not benefit from the attribute even if we add it.

Anyway, we'd like to focus on the `cachehint` attribute for inline scripts and don't currently plan to extend the attribute for other elements.

[Takashi Nakayama]

Yes, it may be useful for something like inline CSS if we extend the attribute, but since HTTP cache-control headers serve well for external resources, `<link> and `<img>` don't benefit from the attribute.

Anyway, we'd like to focus on this `cachehint` attribute for `<script>` tag and don't currently plan to extend this attribute to other tags.

On Friday, May 1, 2026 at 2:36:59 PM UTC Emilio Cobos Álvarez wrote: