Sep 22, 2026
When is stale content safer than an error page?
For public, nonpersonalized content, a short stale window can keep a storefront usable during an origin failure. Never use stale responses for carts, accounts, or private data.
Set the failure rule before launch
Write down the timeout, fallback, and owner. Test the normal path and one real failure. If the customer cannot keep shopping when a dependency breaks, the fallback is not finished.
Bottom line
For public, nonpersonalized content, a short stale window can keep a storefront usable during an origin failure. Never use stale responses for carts, accounts, or private data.
Source: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5861. Reviewed Sep 22, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
When is serving stale content the right call during an outage?
For public, nonpersonalized pages such as product and content pages, serving a recent cached version for a short window keeps the storefront usable while the origin recovers. The stale window should be defined in advance, with a timeout and an owner, rather than improvised during the incident.
Which pages should never be served stale?
Carts, account pages, checkout, and anything containing private or personalized data. A stale version of a public page is an inconvenience. A stale version of a private page can show one customer another customer's information, which is a privacy incident.
How should a store test its stale fallback before launch?
Test the normal path and at least one real failure, with the fallback rule written down first: the timeout, what gets served, and who owns the decision. If customers cannot keep shopping when a dependency breaks, the fallback is not finished.