Dispatcher Configuration

Dispatcher is AEM's caching and request filtering layer. A good configuration improves performance and protects publish instances from unwanted traffic.

Key files

• dispatcher/src/conf.dispatcher.d/
• dispatcher/src/conf.d/
• dispatcher/src/dispatcher.any (entry point)

Core concepts

• Filters: allowlist requests you want to serve.
• Cache rules: define what is cached and how it is invalidated.
• Client headers: control forwarded headers for security.

Best practices

• Default to deny in filters, then explicitly allow known paths.
• Keep cache invalidation rules tight to avoid over-flushing.
• Prefer allowlisted hosts for upstream requests.
• Validate changes against Cloud Manager dispatcher checks.

See also

• Deployment
• Performance
• Security basics