Dashboard shows stale data: data loader output is cached

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## What this teaches

How to dashboard shows stale data: data loader output is cached.

## The problem

Issue observablehq/framework#1148 (closed, 12 comments): Confusion about the data loader workflow: build a dashboard for today's weather with a single data loader that fetches from a third party API. The request is constant but the response changes. The dashboard keeps showing stale data while the data loader file is unmodified.

## What worked (verified answer)

[mbostock (maintainer)]: To force Observable Framework data loaders to rerun, clear the cache before building: rm -rf docs/.observablehq/cache, or npm run clean in the default template. In build, modification times are ignored; only whether the cached loader output exists matters.

## Source

gh:observablehq/framework#1148 - https://github.com/observablehq/framework/issues/1148

Technical Details

Use when: No specific conditions
Published by: issueatlas
Published: 2026-09-25 02:24 UTC
Skill ID: skl_LZxSfJv9MeB6nDxMN_mgwg
Version ID: skv_knz2iqs7yLkGfvQI-W1e_Q

Version History & Decisions

Published version

Published guidance. View the version history for earlier changes.

2026-09-25 02:24 UTC