Common Commands

Valkey supports 200+ commands. This page covers the most commonly used core commands, organized by data type.

String

The most basic key-value operations, also the foundation for other advanced features:

valkeyCopy

# Set key-value
SET user:name "John"
SET session:token "abc123" EX 3600  # Expires in 1 hour

# Get value
GET user:name

# Increment / Decrement
INCR page:views        # Atomic increment
INCRBY score 10        # Increment by specific value

# Batch operations
MSET key1 "v1" key2 "v2" key3 "v3"
MGET key1 key2 key3

# Set only if key does not exist
SETNX lock:resource "owner1"

Hash

Ideal for storing objects, organizing multiple fields under a single key:

valkeyCopy

# Set hash fields
HSET user:1001 name "John" age 30 email "[email protected]"

# Get single / multiple fields
HGET user:1001 name
HMGET user:1001 name age

# Get entire hash
HGETALL user:1001

# Increment field
HINCRBY user:1001 login_count 1

List

Ordered collection of elements supporting operations on both ends. Commonly used for message queues and timelines:

valkeyCopy

# Push to right end
RPUSH tasks "send-email" "generate-report" "clear-cache"

# Pop from left end (FIFO queue)
LPOP tasks

# Blocking pop (wait for new elements)
BLPOP tasks 30  # Wait up to 30 seconds

# Get range
LRANGE tasks 0 -1  # Get all
LLEN tasks          # List length

Set & Sorted Set

valkeyCopy

# --- Set: unordered, unique ---
SADD tags:article:1 "tech" "valkey" "database"
SMEMBERS tags:article:1
SISMEMBER tags:article:1 "tech"

# Intersection / Union
SINTER tags:article:1 tags:article:2
SUNION tags:article:1 tags:article:2

# --- Sorted Set: scored ordered collection ---
ZADD leaderboard 100 "PlayerA" 85 "PlayerB" 92 "PlayerC"
ZRANGE leaderboard 0 -1 WITHSCORES  # Low to high
ZREVRANGE leaderboard 0 2 WITHSCORES # Top 3
ZRANK leaderboard "PlayerB"            # Rank

Key Management

Command	Description	Example
`DEL key`	Delete a key	`DEL user:1001`
`EXISTS key`	Check if key exists	`EXISTS user:1001`
`EXPIRE key s`	Set expiry time (seconds)	`EXPIRE session 3600`
`TTL key`	Check remaining time-to-live	`TTL session`
`TYPE key`	Check value type of key	`TYPE user:1001`
`KEYS pattern`	Match keys by pattern (use with caution)	`KEYS user:*`
`SCAN cursor`	Incrementally iterate keys (recommended)	`SCAN 0 MATCH user:* COUNT 100`
`RENAME`	Rename a key	`RENAME old_key new_key`

Production Warning: Avoid using the KEYS command to scan large numbers of keys — it blocks the server. Use SCAN instead, which iterates incrementally via cursor without blocking.

Stream

Stream data structure introduced in Valkey 5.0, ideal for message queues and event sourcing:

valkeyCopy

# Append message
XADD events * user "John" action "login" ip "192.168.1.1"

# Read messages
XRANGE events - + COUNT 10

# Consumer groups
XGROUP CREATE events mygroup 0
XREADGROUP GROUP mygroup consumer1 COUNT 1 BLOCK 5000 STREAMS events >

Installation Guide

Configuration