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SGLang integrates Cache-DiT, a caching acceleration engine for Diffusion Transformers (DiT), to achieve up to 1.69x inference speedup with minimal quality loss.

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Overview

Cache-DiT uses intelligent caching strategies to skip redundant computation in the denoising loop:
  • DBCache (Dual Block Cache): Dynamically decides when to cache transformer blocks based on residual differences
  • TaylorSeer: Uses Taylor expansion for calibration to optimize caching decisions
  • SCM (Step Computation Masking): Step-level caching control for additional speedup

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Basic Usage

Enable Cache-DiT by exporting the environment variable and using sglang generate or sglang serve : 
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_ENABLED=true \
sglang generate --model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
    --prompt "A beautiful sunset over the mountains"

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Diffusers Backend

Cache-DiT supports loading acceleration configs from a custom YAML file. For diffusers pipelines (diffusers backend), pass the YAML/JSON path via --cache-dit-config. This flow requires cache-dit >= 1.2.0 (cache_dit.load_configs).

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Single GPU inference

Define a cache.yaml file that contains:
  • DBCache + TaylorSeer
cache_config:
  max_warmup_steps: 8
  warmup_interval: 2
  max_cached_steps: -1
  max_continuous_cached_steps: 2
  Fn_compute_blocks: 1
  Bn_compute_blocks: 0
  residual_diff_threshold: 0.12
  enable_taylorseer: true
  taylorseer_order: 1
Then apply the config with: 
sglang generate \
  --backend diffusers \
  --model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
  --cache-dit-config cache.yaml \
  --prompt "A beautiful sunset over the mountains"
  • DBCache + TaylorSeer + SCM (Step Computation Mask)
Config
cache_config:
  max_warmup_steps: 8
  warmup_interval: 2
  max_cached_steps: -1
  max_continuous_cached_steps: 2
  Fn_compute_blocks: 1
  Bn_compute_blocks: 0
  residual_diff_threshold: 0.12
  enable_taylorseer: true
  taylorseer_order: 1
  # Must set the num_inference_steps for SCM. The SCM will automatically
  # generate the steps computation mask based on the num_inference_steps.
  # Reference: https://cache-dit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide/CACHE_API/#scm-steps-computation-masking
  num_inference_steps: 28
  steps_computation_mask: fast
  • DBCache + TaylorSeer + SCM (Step Computation Mask) + Cache CFG
Config
cache_config:
  max_warmup_steps: 8
  warmup_interval: 2
  max_cached_steps: -1
  max_continuous_cached_steps: 2
  Fn_compute_blocks: 1
  Bn_compute_blocks: 0
  residual_diff_threshold: 0.12
  enable_taylorseer: true
  taylorseer_order: 1
  num_inference_steps: 28
  steps_computation_mask: fast
  enable_sperate_cfg: true # e.g, Qwen-Image, Wan, Chroma, Ovis-Image, etc.

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Distributed inference

  • 1D Parallelism
Define a parallelism only config yaml parallel.yaml file that contains:
Config
parallelism_config:
  ulysses_size: auto
  attention_backend: native
Then, apply the distributed inference acceleration config from yaml. ulysses_size: auto means that cache-dit will auto detect the world_size as the ulysses_size. Otherwise, you should manually set it as specific int number, e.g, 4. Then apply the distributed config with: (Note: please add --num-gpus N to specify the number of gpus for distributed inference) 
sglang generate \
  --backend diffusers \
  --num-gpus 4 \
  --model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
  --cache-dit-config parallel.yaml \
  --prompt "A futuristic cityscape at sunset"
  • 2D Parallelism
You can also define a 2D parallelism config yaml parallel_2d.yaml file that contains:
Config
parallelism_config:
  ulysses_size: auto
  tp_size: 2
  attention_backend: native
Then, apply the 2D parallelism config from yaml. Here tp_size: 2 means using tensor parallelism with size 2. The ulysses_size: auto means that cache-dit will auto detect the world_size // tp_size as the ulysses_size.
  • 3D Parallelism
You can also define a 3D parallelism config yaml parallel_3d.yaml file that contains:
Config
parallelism_config:
  ulysses_size: 2
  ring_size: 2
  tp_size: 2
  attention_backend: native
Then, apply the 3D parallelism config from yaml. Here ulysses_size: 2, ring_size: 2, tp_size: 2 means using ulysses parallelism with size 2, ring parallelism with size 2 and tensor parallelism with size 2.
  • Ulysses Anything Attention
To enable Ulysses Anything Attention, you can define a parallelism config yaml parallel_uaa.yaml file that contains:
Config
parallelism_config:
  ulysses_size: auto
  attention_backend: native
  ulysses_anything: true
  • Ulysses FP8 Communication
For device that don’t have NVLink support, you can enable Ulysses FP8 Communication to further reduce the communication overhead. You can define a parallelism config yaml parallel_fp8.yaml file that contains:
Config
parallelism_config:
  ulysses_size: auto
  attention_backend: native
  ulysses_float8: true
  • Async Ulysses CP
You can also enable async ulysses CP to overlap the communication and computation. Define a parallelism config yaml parallel_async.yaml file that contains:
Config
parallelism_config:
  ulysses_size: auto
  attention_backend: native
  ulysses_async: true # Now, only support for FLUX.1, Qwen-Image, Ovis-Image and Z-Image.
Then, apply the config from yaml. Here ulysses_async: true means enabling async ulysses CP.
  • TE-P and VAE-P
You can also specify the extra parallel modules in the yaml config. For example, define a parallelism config yaml parallel_extra.yaml file that contains:
Config
parallelism_config:
  ulysses_size: auto
  attention_backend: native
  extra_parallel_modules: ["text_encoder", "vae"]

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Hybrid Cache and Parallelism

Define a hybrid cache and parallel acceleration config yaml hybrid.yaml file that contains:
Config
cache_config:
  max_warmup_steps: 8
  warmup_interval: 2
  max_cached_steps: -1
  max_continuous_cached_steps: 2
  Fn_compute_blocks: 1
  Bn_compute_blocks: 0
  residual_diff_threshold: 0.12
  enable_taylorseer: true
  taylorseer_order: 1
parallelism_config:
  ulysses_size: auto
  attention_backend: native
  extra_parallel_modules: ["text_encoder", "vae"]
Then, apply the hybrid cache and parallel acceleration config from yaml. 
sglang generate \
  --backend diffusers \
  --num-gpus 4 \
  --model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
  --cache-dit-config hybrid.yaml \
  --prompt "A beautiful sunset over the mountains"

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Attention Backend

In some cases, users may want to only specify the attention backend without any other optimization configs. In this case, you can define a yaml file attention.yaml that only contains:
Config
attention_backend: "flash" # '_flash_3' for Hopper

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Quantization

You can also specify the quantization config in the yaml file, required torchao>=0.16.0. For example, define a yaml file quantize.yaml that contains:
Config
quantize_config: # quantization configuration for transformer modules
  # float8 (DQ), float8_weight_only, float8_blockwise, int8 (DQ), int8_weight_only, etc.
  quant_type: "float8"
  # layers to exclude from quantization (transformer). layers that contains any of the
  # keywords in the exclude_layers list will be excluded from quantization. This is useful
  # for some sensitive layers that are not robust to quantization, e.g., embedding layers.
  exclude_layers:
    - "embedder"
    - "embed"
  verbose: false # whether to print verbose logs during quantization
Then, apply the quantization config from yaml. Please also enable torch.compile for better performance if you are using quantization. For example:
Command
sglang generate \
  --backend diffusers \
  --model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
  --warmup \
  --cache-dit-config quantize.yaml \
  --enable-torch-compile \
  --dit-cpu-offload false \
  --text-encoder-cpu-offload false \
  --prompt "A beautiful sunset over the mountains"

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Combined Configs: Cache + Parallelism + Quantization

You can also combine all the above configs together in a single yaml file combined.yaml that contains:
Config
cache_config:
  max_warmup_steps: 8
  warmup_interval: 2
  max_cached_steps: -1
  max_continuous_cached_steps: 2
  Fn_compute_blocks: 1
  Bn_compute_blocks: 0
  residual_diff_threshold: 0.12
  enable_taylorseer: true
  taylorseer_order: 1
parallelism_config:
  ulysses_size: auto
  attention_backend: native
  extra_parallel_modules: ["text_encoder", "vae"]
quantize_config:
  quant_type: "float8"
  exclude_layers:
    - "embedder"
    - "embed"
  verbose: false
Then, apply the combined cache, parallelism and quantization config from yaml. Please also enable torch.compile for better performance if you are using quantization.

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Advanced Configuration

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DBCache Parameters

DBCache controls block-level caching behavior:
ParameterEnv VariableDefaultDescription
FnSGLANG_CACHE_DIT_FN1Number of first blocks to always compute
BnSGLANG_CACHE_DIT_BN0Number of last blocks to always compute
WSGLANG_CACHE_DIT_WARMUP4Warmup steps before caching starts
RSGLANG_CACHE_DIT_RDT0.24Residual difference threshold
MCSGLANG_CACHE_DIT_MC3Maximum continuous cached steps

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TaylorSeer Configuration

TaylorSeer improves caching accuracy using Taylor expansion:
ParameterEnv VariableDefaultDescription
EnableSGLANG_CACHE_DIT_TAYLORSEERfalseEnable TaylorSeer calibrator
OrderSGLANG_CACHE_DIT_TS_ORDER1Taylor expansion order (1 or 2)

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Combined Configuration Example

DBCache and TaylorSeer are complementary strategies that work together, you can configure both sets of parameters simultaneously: 
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_ENABLED=true \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_FN=2 \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_BN=1 \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_WARMUP=4 \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_RDT=0.4 \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_MC=4 \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_TAYLORSEER=true \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_TS_ORDER=2 \
sglang generate --model-path black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev \
    --prompt "A curious raccoon in a forest"

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SCM (Step Computation Masking)

SCM provides step-level caching control for additional speedup. It decides which denoising steps to compute fully and which to use cached results. SCM Presets SCM is configured with presets:
PresetCompute RatioSpeedQuality
none100%BaselineBest
slow~75%~1.3xHigh
medium~50%~2xGood
fast~35%~3xAcceptable
ultra~25%~4xLower
Usage 
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_ENABLED=true \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_SCM_PRESET=medium \
sglang generate --model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
    --prompt "A futuristic cityscape at sunset"
Custom SCM Bins For fine-grained control over which steps to compute vs cache: 
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_ENABLED=true \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_SCM_COMPUTE_BINS="8,3,3,2,2" \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_SCM_CACHE_BINS="1,2,2,2,3" \
sglang generate --model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
    --prompt "A futuristic cityscape at sunset"
SCM Policy
PolicyEnv VariableDescription
dynamicSGLANG_CACHE_DIT_SCM_POLICY=dynamicAdaptive caching based on content (default)
staticSGLANG_CACHE_DIT_SCM_POLICY=staticFixed caching pattern

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Environment Variables

All Cache-DiT parameters can be configured via environment variables. See Environment Variables for the complete list.

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Supported Models

SGLang Diffusion x Cache-DiT supports almost all models originally supported in SGLang Diffusion:
Model FamilyExample Models
WanWan2.1, Wan2.2
FluxFLUX.1-dev, FLUX.2-dev
Z-ImageZ-Image-Turbo
QwenQwen-Image, Qwen-Image-Edit
HunyuanHunyuanVideo

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Performance Tips

  1. Start with defaults: The default parameters work well for most models
  2. Use TaylorSeer: It typically improves both speed and quality
  3. Tune R threshold: Lower values = better quality, higher values = faster
  4. SCM for extra speed: Use medium preset for good speed/quality balance
  5. Warmup matters: Higher warmup = more stable caching decisions

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Limitations

  • SGLang-native pipelines: Distributed support (TP/SP) is not yet validated; Cache-DiT will be automatically disabled when world_size > 1.
  • SCM minimum steps: SCM requires >= 8 inference steps to be effective
  • Model support: Only models registered in Cache-DiT’s BlockAdapterRegister are supported

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Troubleshooting

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SCM disabled for low step count

For models with < 8 inference steps (e.g., DMD distilled models), SCM will be automatically disabled. DBCache acceleration still works.

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References