diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index ccbccc3..c043eea 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-2.2.0
+2.2.1
diff --git a/app/dependencies.py b/app/dependencies.py
index 9480559..b95747d 100644
--- a/app/dependencies.py
+++ b/app/dependencies.py
@@ -26,23 +26,28 @@ logger = logging.getLogger('discord_app')
 REDIS_HOST = os.environ.get('REDIS_HOST', 'localhost')
 REDIS_PORT = int(os.environ.get('REDIS_PORT', '6379'))
 REDIS_DB = int(os.environ.get('REDIS_DB', '0'))
+CACHE_ENABLED = os.environ.get('CACHE_ENABLED', 'true').lower() == 'true'
 
 # Initialize Redis client with connection error handling
-try:
-    redis_client = Redis(
-        host=REDIS_HOST, 
-        port=REDIS_PORT, 
-        db=REDIS_DB, 
-        decode_responses=True,
-        socket_connect_timeout=5,
-        socket_timeout=5
-    )
-    # Test connection
-    redis_client.ping()
-    logger.info(f"Redis connected successfully at {REDIS_HOST}:{REDIS_PORT}")
-except Exception as e:
-    logger.warning(f"Redis connection failed: {e}. Caching will be disabled.")
+if not CACHE_ENABLED:
+    logger.info("Caching disabled via CACHE_ENABLED=false")
     redis_client = None
+else:
+    try:
+        redis_client = Redis(
+            host=REDIS_HOST,
+            port=REDIS_PORT,
+            db=REDIS_DB,
+            decode_responses=True,
+            socket_connect_timeout=5,
+            socket_timeout=5
+        )
+        # Test connection
+        redis_client.ping()
+        logger.info(f"Redis connected successfully at {REDIS_HOST}:{REDIS_PORT}")
+    except Exception as e:
+        logger.warning(f"Redis connection failed: {e}. Caching will be disabled.")
+        redis_client = None
 
 oauth2_scheme = OAuth2PasswordBearer(tokenUrl="token")
 priv_help = False if not os.environ.get('PRIVATE_IN_SCHEMA') else os.environ.get('PRIVATE_IN_SCHEMA').upper()