AddThisFeature

Cache Invalidation Controls

Clear stale cached data without flushing everything or restarting.

moderate Admin & Operations

What it adds

An operator control that invalidates cache entries by namespace, tenant, or resource — scoped, propagated across processes, and recorded.

What your agent is told to do

6
  1. 1

    Define named invalidation scopes rather than free-text key entry. An operator picks a namespace, a tenant, or a specific resource; they do not type raw cache keys.

  2. 2

    Enforce tenancy on every scope. One workspace's operator must be structurally incapable of clearing another workspace's entries — check the scope against their permissions before building the key pattern, not after.

  3. 3

    Propagate invalidation to every process and region that holds a copy. In-process and edge caches will not hear about a change made in a shared store unless you tell them, and a clear that only affects one server is worse than no clear because it looks like it worked.

  4. 4

    Report completion honestly. Show the operator when the invalidation has been acknowledged everywhere, and show it as pending until then.

  5. 5

    Record every manual clear: who, what scope, when, and how many entries were affected. Manual cache clears are a common step in incidents and need to appear in the timeline.

  6. 6

    Do NOT expose a global flush-everything button to ordinary operators. A full flush of a warm cache stampedes the database at exactly the moment the system is already unhealthy.

Edge cases it handles

7
  • Clearing a hot key causes a thundering herd of identical recomputes. Rebuild behind a single-flight lock rather than letting every request recompute.
  • A clear issued while a slow write is in flight can be immediately re-poisoned by the older value finishing last. Invalidate after the write commits, not before.
  • Wildcard or prefix scans are expensive or unsupported on some cache backends. Prefer versioned namespace keys so invalidation is a single increment.
  • If the cache backend is unreachable, the control must fail loudly. A clear that silently did nothing is the worst possible outcome.
  • Repeated clears of the same scope in quick succession should be rate-limited — an anxious operator clicking during an incident can keep the cache permanently cold.
  • Derived and dependent caches must be considered. Clearing a record often requires clearing the lists and counts that included it.
  • The audit record must name the scope, never dump the cached values, which may contain personal data.

Definition of done

9
  • Invalidation is issued by named scope, never by free-text key.
  • A scope outside the operator's permissions is rejected before any keys are touched.
  • Invalidation reaches every process and region, and the UI shows pending until acknowledged.
  • Every manual clear is recorded with actor, scope, time, and effect.
  • Rebuilds after a clear are single-flighted rather than stampeding.
  • An unreachable cache backend produces a visible error, not a false success.
  • Global flush requires elevated permission and an explicit confirmation.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.