If the request is stale according to the given timestamp and etag value # (i.e. it needs to be processed again) then execute this block if stale?(last_modified: @product.updated_at.utc, etag: @product.cache_key) respond_to do |wants| # ... normal response processing end end # If the request is fresh (i.e. it's not modified) then you don't need to do # anything. The default render checks for this using the parameters # used in the previous call to stale? and will automatically send a # :not_modified. So that's it, you're done. end end