From 14574c68fa1230cb27875fbe72d9f31cff43fd0b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: imaolo <56898718+imaolo@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2026 06:55:29 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Add ContextVar to disable the scheduler cache (#14257)

* add scheduler cache ContextVar

* test scheduler cache context var

---------

Co-authored-by: George Hotz <72895+geohot@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 test/unit/test_schedule_cache.py | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 tinygrad/engine/schedule.py      |  6 +++---
 tinygrad/helpers.py              |  2 ++
 3 files changed, 31 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/test/unit/test_schedule_cache.py b/test/unit/test_schedule_cache.py
index 0d56dafa86..71fb85b831 100644
--- a/test/unit/test_schedule_cache.py
+++ b/test/unit/test_schedule_cache.py
@@ -1,12 +1,16 @@
 import unittest
 import functools
 from tinygrad import Tensor, Variable, UOp, Context
+from tinygrad.helpers import cpu_events
 from tinygrad.uop.ops import KernelInfo
 from tinygrad.engine.schedule import schedule_cache
 
 def custom_set0_kernel(A:UOp, num:int) -> UOp:
   return A[0].set(num).sink(arg=KernelInfo(f"custom_set0_{num}"))
 
+def schedule_one():
+  Tensor([1]).schedule()
+
 class TestScheduleCache(unittest.TestCase):
   def test_bound_variable_reuses_cache(self):
     schedule_cache.clear()
@@ -75,5 +79,27 @@ class TestScheduleCache(unittest.TestCase):
       print(num)
     self.assertEqual(len(schedule_cache), start_len_schedule_cache)
 
+  def test_disable_schedule_cache(self):
+    schedule_cache.clear()
+
+    # test write
+    with Context(SCACHE=0): schedule_one()
+    self.assertEqual(len(schedule_cache), 0)
+    with Context(SCACHE=1):
+      schedule_one()
+      schedule_one()
+    self.assertEqual(len(schedule_cache), 1)
+
+    # test read
+    with Context(PROFILE=1):
+      cpu_events.clear()
+      with Context(SCACHE=0): schedule_one()
+      num_events_no_cache = len(cpu_events)
+
+      cpu_events.clear()
+      with Context(SCACHE=1): schedule_one()
+      num_events_cache = len(cpu_events)
+    self.assertLess(num_events_cache, num_events_no_cache)
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
   unittest.main()
diff --git a/tinygrad/engine/schedule.py b/tinygrad/engine/schedule.py
index e0c4b534ab..ab622cbc18 100644
--- a/tinygrad/engine/schedule.py
+++ b/tinygrad/engine/schedule.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ from collections import deque
 from tinygrad.uop.ops import UOp, Ops, buffers, UOpMetaClass, track_rewrites, PatternMatcher, UPat, graph_rewrite, graph_rewrite_map
 from tinygrad.uop.spec import type_verify, tensor_spec
 from tinygrad.device import Buffer, MultiBuffer
-from tinygrad.helpers import DEBUG, cpu_profile, TracingKey, SPEC, flatten, pluralize
+from tinygrad.helpers import DEBUG, cpu_profile, TracingKey, SPEC, flatten, pluralize, SCACHE
 from tinygrad.engine.realize import ExecItem
 
 # **** schedule linearizer
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ def complete_create_schedule_with_vars(big_sink:UOp) -> tuple[dict[UOp, UOp], li
   big_sink_cache = graph_rewrite(big_sink, pm_pre_sched_cache, ctx=(input_buffers, var_vals), name="rewrite for sched cache")
   sched_cache_key = big_sink_cache.key
 
-  if (sc_ret:=schedule_cache.get(sched_cache_key, None)) is None:
+  if not SCACHE or (sc_ret:=schedule_cache.get(sched_cache_key, None)) is None:
     # verify Tensors match the spec (on big_sink, we only need to do this if cache misses)
     if SPEC: type_verify(big_sink, tensor_spec)
 
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ def complete_create_schedule_with_vars(big_sink:UOp) -> tuple[dict[UOp, UOp], li
     after_map = [(u, u.buf_uop) for u in big_sink.toposort() if u.op is Ops.AFTER]
     tensor_map_sink = UOp.sink(*flatten([(k,v) for k,v in tensor_map.items()]), *flatten(after_map))
     combined_sink = UOp.sink(tensor_map_sink, buf_uops_sink)
-    schedule_cache[sched_cache_key] = (pre_schedule, combined_sink)
+    if SCACHE: schedule_cache[sched_cache_key] = (pre_schedule, combined_sink)
   else:
     # schedule cache hit
     del big_sink_cache
diff --git a/tinygrad/helpers.py b/tinygrad/helpers.py
index d4b0e7d053..1bc0578617 100644
--- a/tinygrad/helpers.py
+++ b/tinygrad/helpers.py
@@ -199,6 +199,8 @@ TUPLE_ORDER = ContextVar("TUPLE_ORDER", 1)
 CCACHE = ContextVar("CCACHE", 1)
 # allow tf32 to be used on NVIDIA GPUs
 ALLOW_TF32 = ContextVar("ALLOW_TF32", 0)
+# set to 0 to disable the scheduler cache
+SCACHE = ContextVar("SCACHE", 1)
 
 @dataclass(frozen=True)
 class Metadata: