Overview
How might we design caching indicators so people can trust and act on AI output?
When to use
- Ideal for AI applications with caching, search tools, and platforms where indicating cache usage helps users understand response speed and data freshness.
When to skip
- Cached content that must always be live, like stock prices.
- Indicators so prominent they distract from the answer.
- Cache with no invalidation story on source update.
Rules
Cached badge with no timestamp.
Fresh button that does nothing different.
Hiding cache on wrong answers users cannot retry fresh.
Same UI for CDN cache and semantic answer cache.
Evidence
| Product | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Search engines | Cached page links with snapshot date. |
| API platforms | Cache-Control headers surfaced in dev UI. |
| AI platforms | Regenerate fresh on assistant messages. |
| Content delivery networks | Hit or miss badges in debug overlays. |