Software for a distributed streaming platform receives an application. The application is structured as a directed acyclic graph (DAG) with instances of operators as nodes and streams as edges between nodes. Multiple instances of an operator access a shared database. The software receives a pre-defined hint associated with the application. The pre-defined hint sets a maximum period of time for local caching of a result from a query of the database by each of the multiple instances. The software launches the application by assigning the instances of operators to one or more containers provided by the streaming platform and initiating the streams. Each container is associated with a local cache. The software then receives a request from the application to make a dynamic adjustment that increases the maximum period of time for local caching of a result from a query of the database by each of the multiple instances.