Docs: Update cache status descriptions and examples for async stale-while-revalidate#28613
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pedrosousa merged 3 commits intocloudflare:productionfrom Feb 26, 2026
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…r async SWR - REVALIDATED: reframe as the synchronous validation path, now only seen without stale-while-revalidate or when must-revalidate/no-cache (with OCC enabled) prevents stale serving - UPDATING: remove misleading 'very popular resources' qualifier; explain it as the expected status during async stale-while-revalidate revalidation - cache-control example: remove 'initial synchronous revalidation' language - retention-vs-freshness: update revalidation paragraph to distinguish async (SWR) and synchronous paths Companion to cloudflare#28577
pedrosousa noted on cloudflare#28577 that synchronous revalidation is still the live behaviour for Enterprise zones not yet migrated, so past tense is factually incorrect for those users. Also scope the situations where REVALIDATED is seen to explicitly include unmigraded Enterprise zones.
pedrosousa
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Feb 26, 2026
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Summary
Follow-up to #28577 (async
stale-while-revalidate). That PR updates the changelog,revalidation.mdx,cache-control.mdx(note), anddefault-cache-behavior.mdx. This PR covers the remaining pages that still describe the old synchronous revalidation behaviour.Changes
cache/concepts/cache-responses.mdxREVALIDATED: reframed as the synchronous validation path — the request waited for origin before being served. Notes that with async SWR most revalidations now returnUPDATINGorHIT, and thatREVALIDATEDis now only seen whenstale-while-revalidateis absent or blocking directives (must-revalidate,no-cachewith OCC enabled) prevent stale serving.UPDATING: removes the misleading "typically only seen for very popular cached resources" qualifier. Now explains it as the expected status during asyncstale-while-revalidaterevalidation.cache/concepts/cache-control.mdxstale-while-revalidateexample description to remove "initial synchronous revalidation" language and replace it with accurate async framing.cache/concepts/retention-vs-freshness.mdxDependency
The links to
/cache/concepts/revalidation/#asynchronous-revalidationadded incache-responses.mdxdepend on the anchor introduced in #28577. This PR should be merged after or alongside that one.