decision: dw-stale-urls trim-B → leave-it (negative cache is doing its job)

9fb3d02100525fff3aee505767856f7d2eaeadc3 · 2026-05-19 21:22:32 -0700 · SteveStudio2

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A reports/dw-stale-urls-trim-B-decision-2026-05-19.md

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commit 9fb3d02100525fff3aee505767856f7d2eaeadc3
Author: SteveStudio2 <stevestudio2@SteveStacStudio.lan>
Date:   Tue May 19 21:22:32 2026 -0700

    decision: dw-stale-urls trim-B → leave-it (negative cache is doing its job)
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+# dw-stale-urls trim-B — final decision
+
+**Date**: 2026-05-19
+**Decision**: LEAVE-IT (option 3)
+
+## Why
+
+The 16,713 bad rows in `dw_unified.image_hashes` are not orphans — they are the negative-fetch-cache, and they're correctly referenced by 177 catalog tables. Deleting them does not remove the broken-image problem (the broken URLs live in the catalog tables themselves and on `shopify_products.image_url`). It only forces re-fetch attempts that will 404 again.
+
+The real fix is the heal-A pipeline (push verified swaps + re-scrape dead-source vendors) — not negative-cache cleanup.
+
+## Cost of leaving it
+
+- Disk: ~1 MB of "noise"
+- Behavior: PG ignores these rows on success-path queries (most queries filter `WHERE status='success'`)
+- Risk: Zero
+
+## When this decision could be revisited
+
+- If `image_hashes` exceeds 100 MB
+- If a fetch-retry tool starts ignoring the negative cache and re-hitting 404 URLs
+- If image_hashes row count crosses 500k
+
+## Action taken
+
+- No DELETE executed
+- cncp parking-lot item `dw-stale-urls` will be marked discussed once heal-A pipeline completes (substeps A.push + A.rescrape in flight)
+
+Filed by Claude session #103.

← ed88f83 report: dw-stale-urls heal-A audit (4989 products, propose s · back to Wallco Ai · report: dw-stale-urls push-A2 (470 products healed on storef e085a06 →