Caches Are Treaties

A cache is not a shortcut. A cache is an agreement to accept stale truth under declared conditions.

When a system serves cached data, it enters a treaty with reality.

I. The Myth of “Just Faster”

Caches are often justified as:

performance optimization

latency reduction

cost saving

scalability aid

This hides the real effect.

Caching decides:

when truth may be delayed

how long falsehood is tolerated

which changes are ignored

who sees reality first

That is diplomacy.

II. Caching Suspends Enforcement

While data is cached:

updates may be invisible

revocations may not apply

permissions may appear valid

limits may seem unchanged

Caching suspends enforcement for a period of time.

Suspended enforcement is negotiated authority.

III. Time-to-Live Is a Treaty Clause

TTL is not a timer. TTL is a clause.

It declares:

how long stale data is acceptable

when truth must be renegotiated

when the treaty expires

An infinite TTL is permanent misinformation.

IV. Cache Invalidation Is Treaty Termination

Invalidation is not a bug. It is termination.

When a cache is invalidated:

the treaty ends

truth is reasserted

authority resets

Failure to invalidate is breach of agreement.

V. Silent Caching Is Illegitimate

If users do not know:

data is cached

data may be stale

rules may have changed

Then consent is missing.

Unannounced treaties are illegitimate.

VI. Caches Must Be Scoped

Caching must declare:

scope (user, tenant, role, system)

visibility boundaries

inheritance rules

A global cache can leak authority across boundaries.

That is unlawful.

VII. Replay Requires Cache Semantics

Replay must reproduce:

cache hits

cache misses

expirations

invalidations

If replay bypasses caching behavior, audit fails.

VIII. Infrastructure Caches Are Not Law

CDNs, HTTP caches, ORM caches do not define treaties.

They execute them.

Cache policy must live in:

kernel

registry

versioned rules

Not in headers alone.

IX. Final Conclusion

Caches are treaties.

A lawful system:

declares caching as negotiated staleness

defines TTL as contractual clause

invalidates caches explicitly

scopes caches correctly

replays cache behavior deterministically

Anything else trades truth for speed without consent.