ttl refresh job succeeds but expired features still served from cache failure

TL;DR

Invalidate or shorten the serving cache so its lifetime is never longer than the feature TTL, because the refresh job and the store are correct: a cache in front of serving keeps handing out the expired values after the store has moved on. Start with the serving layer cache settings and the online store values read directly, bypassing the cache, work on one affected call, record, or run first, and prove the fix there before running the full set. Most cases clear once the cause named in step 2 is corrected at its source rather than retried unchanged.

ttl refresh job succeeds but expired features still served from cache failure

Use this when

• You see this exact message or symptom: ttl refresh job succeeds but expired features still served from cache failure
• One run, record, call, or object is affected and you can name it
• A retry without changing anything reproduces the same result

Not for this skill when

• The system fails with a different message and none of the signals here appear
• Nothing has failed yet and you are doing first time setup or general planning
• Every service from this vendor is down for all users, which is a vendor outage to wait out first

Steps

1. Reproduce the failure once using the serving layer cache settings and the online store values read directly, bypassing the cache, and record the time, the workspace or account, and the one item it names. Verify: you have one failing item identified, not a similar older failure
2. Inspect the value read straight from the online store versus the value through the serving path, the cache lifetime setting, and whether materialization changed the underlying value at all. Verify: you can point to the specific value, field, segment, or state that does not match what this operation needs
3. Apply the fix at that source: Invalidate or shorten the serving cache so its lifetime is never longer than the feature TTL, because the refresh job and the store are correct: a cache in front of serving keeps handing out the expired values after the store has moved on. Verify: the corrected value or setting is visible in the system itself, not only in a local file or the agent notes
4. Re-run the original operation on the single affected item first. Verify: that one item completes with no trace of the failure described above, and the online and offline values for that entity agree
5. Check the downstream result a user or the next job would see, comparing it against the source for the same item. Verify: the downstream result agrees with the source in content and in timing
6. Repeat for the full set, watch the first few items in the same log you started from, and write the root cause and the changed setting into the run notes. Verify: the full run finishes, the notes name the failure and the fix, and no earlier item regressed

Variant phrasings

ttl refresh job succeeds but expired features still served from cache failure

The subject-first phrasing of the same failure. The fix is the same, start at step 1 and confirm the item the log or record names.

Tool-first phrasing of this failure

The phrasing searchers use once they know which system raised it. It is the same underlying problem, not a separate bug.

Why does this keep happening after a retry

The repeat-occurrence phrasing. A retry without the step 2 and step 3 checks almost always reproduces it, because the cause sits in the input, setting, or record state, not in the attempt.

Compatibility: Feast or custom serving APIs behind Redis, CDN, or application level caching.

Why it happens

Two different TTLs are at play and only one is labelled TTL. The feature TTL governs the store; the API or CDN cache in front of it has its own lifetime that nobody connected to the refresh job.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_ULt2RYaPbY40ru3ppyQPig