diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 3ed7eebe..b56c7987 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/buaazp/fasthttprouter v0.1.1
 	github.com/go-logr/logr v1.4.2
 	github.com/google/uuid v1.6.0
-	github.com/llm-d/llm-d-kv-cache-manager v0.2.1
+	github.com/llm-d/llm-d-kv-cache-manager v0.3.0-rc1
 	github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2 v2.23.4
 	github.com/onsi/gomega v1.37.0
 	github.com/openai/openai-go v0.1.0-beta.10
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 7878bc43..4db4fd05 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+github.com/alicebob/miniredis/v2 v2.35.0 h1:QwLphYqCEAo1eu1TqPRN2jgVMPBweeQcR21jeqDCONI=
+github.com/alicebob/miniredis/v2 v2.35.0/go.mod h1:TcL7YfarKPGDAthEtl5NBeHZfeUQj6OXMm/+iu5cLMM=
 github.com/andybalholm/brotli v1.1.1 h1:PR2pgnyFznKEugtsUo0xLdDop5SKXd5Qf5ysW+7XdTA=
 github.com/andybalholm/brotli v1.1.1/go.mod h1:05ib4cKhjx3OQYUY22hTVd34Bc8upXjOLL2rKwwZBoA=
 github.com/beorn7/perks v1.0.1 h1:VlbKKnNfV8bJzeqoa4cOKqO6bYr3WgKZxO8Z16+hsOM=
@@ -66,8 +68,8 @@ github.com/kr/text v0.2.0 h1:5Nx0Ya0ZqY2ygV366QzturHI13Jq95ApcVaJBhpS+AY=
 github.com/kr/text v0.2.0/go.mod h1:eLer722TekiGuMkidMxC/pM04lWEeraHUUmBw8l2grE=
 github.com/kylelemons/godebug v1.1.0 h1:RPNrshWIDI6G2gRW9EHilWtl7Z6Sb1BR0xunSBf0SNc=
 github.com/kylelemons/godebug v1.1.0/go.mod h1:9/0rRGxNHcop5bhtWyNeEfOS8JIWk580+fNqagV/RAw=
-github.com/llm-d/llm-d-kv-cache-manager v0.2.1 h1:PKIjJPUF9ILLFBNvZRa0QQ/liTQjBKwWChzcenEdM08=
-github.com/llm-d/llm-d-kv-cache-manager v0.2.1/go.mod h1:s1xaE4ImkihWaLg2IQh4VN6L1PgN5RD1u1VarPey6dw=
+github.com/llm-d/llm-d-kv-cache-manager v0.3.0-rc1 h1:SDLiNrcreDcA9m9wfXAumFARDHHXpjOjHTzshTiTGxk=
+github.com/llm-d/llm-d-kv-cache-manager v0.3.0-rc1/go.mod h1:tN80/D0Faf6pE2ocwFgTNoCxKPsqdsa2XnjQUqOaZ8Q=
 github.com/mailru/easyjson v0.7.7 h1:UGYAvKxe3sBsEDzO8ZeWOSlIQfWFlxbzLZe7hwFURr0=
 github.com/mailru/easyjson v0.7.7/go.mod h1:xzfreul335JAWq5oZzymOObrkdz5UnU4kGfJJLY9Nlc=
 github.com/modern-go/concurrent v0.0.0-20180228061459-e0a39a4cb421/go.mod h1:6dJC0mAP4ikYIbvyc7fijjWJddQyLn8Ig3JB5CqoB9Q=
@@ -143,6 +145,8 @@ github.com/xyproto/randomstring v1.0.5 h1:YtlWPoRdgMu3NZtP45drfy1GKoojuR7hmRcnhZ
 github.com/xyproto/randomstring v1.0.5/go.mod h1:rgmS5DeNXLivK7YprL0pY+lTuhNQW3iGxZ18UQApw/E=
 github.com/yuin/goldmark v1.1.27/go.mod h1:3hX8gzYuyVAZsxl0MRgGTJEmQBFcNTphYh9decYSb74=
 github.com/yuin/goldmark v1.2.1/go.mod h1:3hX8gzYuyVAZsxl0MRgGTJEmQBFcNTphYh9decYSb74=
+github.com/yuin/gopher-lua v1.1.1 h1:kYKnWBjvbNP4XLT3+bPEwAXJx262OhaHDWDVOPjL46M=
+github.com/yuin/gopher-lua v1.1.1/go.mod h1:GBR0iDaNXjAgGg9zfCvksxSRnQx76gclCIb7kdAd1Pw=
 go.uber.org/automaxprocs v1.6.0 h1:O3y2/QNTOdbF+e/dpXNNW7Rx2hZ4sTIPyybbxyNqTUs=
 go.uber.org/automaxprocs v1.6.0/go.mod h1:ifeIMSnPZuznNm6jmdzmU3/bfk01Fe2fotchwEFJ8r8=
 go.uber.org/goleak v1.3.0 h1:2K3zAYmnTNqV73imy9J1T3WC+gmCePx2hEGkimedGto=
diff --git a/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache.go b/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache.go
index ebb32a83..bb676ed9 100644
--- a/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache.go
+++ b/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache.go
@@ -93,10 +93,7 @@ func (h *KVCacheHelper) OnRequestStart(vllmReq openaiserverapi.CompletionRequest
 	}
 
 	nBlocksAlreadyInCache, err := h.blockCache.startRequest(requestID, blockHashes)
-	if err == nil {
-		vllmReq.SetNumberOfCachedPromptTokens(nBlocksAlreadyInCache * h.blockSize)
-	}
-
+	vllmReq.SetNumberOfCachedPromptTokens(nBlocksAlreadyInCache * h.blockSize)
 	return err
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache_sender.go b/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache_sender.go
index 1c0c970a..b0ddac3f 100644
--- a/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache_sender.go
+++ b/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache_sender.go
@@ -33,11 +33,6 @@ const (
 	eventActionRemove
 )
 
-const (
-	BlockStored  = "BlockStored"
-	BlockRemoved = "BlockRemoved"
-)
-
 type EventData struct {
 	action     EventAction
 	hashValues []uint64
@@ -98,9 +93,9 @@ func (s *KVEventSender) Run(ctx context.Context) error {
 
 			switch eventData.action {
 			case eventActionStore:
-				payload, err = msgpack.Marshal(storedToTaggedUnion(kvevents.BlockStored{BlockHashes: eventData.hashValues}))
+				payload, err = msgpack.Marshal(kvevents.BlockStored{BlockHashes: eventData.hashValues}.ToTaggedUnion())
 			case eventActionRemove:
-				payload, err = msgpack.Marshal(removedToTaggedUnion(kvevents.BlockRemoved{BlockHashes: eventData.hashValues}))
+				payload, err = msgpack.Marshal(kvevents.BlockRemoved{BlockHashes: eventData.hashValues}.ToTaggedUnion())
 			default:
 				return fmt.Errorf("invalid event action %d", eventData.action)
 			}
@@ -135,24 +130,6 @@ func (s *KVEventSender) Run(ctx context.Context) error {
 	}
 }
 
-func storedToTaggedUnion(bs kvevents.BlockStored) []any {
-	return []any{
-		BlockStored,
-		bs.BlockHashes,
-		bs.ParentBlockHash,
-		bs.TokenIds,
-		bs.BlockSize,
-		bs.LoraID,
-	}
-}
-
-func removedToTaggedUnion(br kvevents.BlockRemoved) []any {
-	return []any{
-		BlockRemoved,
-		br.BlockHashes,
-	}
-}
-
 // helper to publish collected batch if not empty
 func (s *KVEventSender) publishHelper(ctx context.Context) error {
 	if len(s.batch) == 0 {
diff --git a/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache_test.go b/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache_test.go
index 1d1d1c82..f7e09e00 100644
--- a/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kv-cache/kv_cache_test.go
@@ -513,11 +513,11 @@ func parseEvent(parts [][]byte, expectedTopic string, expectedSeq uint64) ([]uin
 		Expect(err).NotTo(HaveOccurred())
 
 		switch tag {
-		case BlockStored:
+		case kvevents.BlockStoredEventTag:
 			var bs kvevents.BlockStored
 			err = msgpack.Unmarshal(payloadBytes, &bs)
 			stored = append(stored, bs.BlockHashes...)
-		case BlockRemoved:
+		case kvevents.BlockRemovedEventTag:
 			var br kvevents.BlockRemoved
 			err = msgpack.Unmarshal(payloadBytes, &br)
 			removed = append(removed, br.BlockHashes...)