| name | ars-cache-invalidate |
| description | ARS /ars-cache-invalidate — drop cached verification entries for a citation key |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
| user-invocable | true |
Invalidate the persistent verification cache for one citation key, so the next pipeline run re-verifies it live against Crossref / OpenAlex / Semantic Scholar / arXiv instead of returning a stale cached verdict. Use this when a citation's metadata changed (e.g. a preprint gained a published DOI) or when a prior verification looks wrong.
The cache (spec v3.11 #182 Delta 2) is a local SQLite store at ~/.cache/ars/verification.db (override via ARS_VERIFICATION_CACHE_PATH), keyed by (citation_key, resolver_name, query_form) with a 90-day TTL. This command removes every cached entry for the named citation key (all four resolvers, all query forms); other citations are untouched. It is idempotent — invalidating a key with no cached rows succeeds as a no-op.
Invalidation cascade (#541, unconditional): after invalidation the next gate regenerates the citation's verification summary row and re-runs Phase E audit verdicts for claims citing it — unconditionally (no baseline is retained to diff against), covering existence status, metadata, and retrieved evidence alike. An age-based advisory also surfaces stale cache entries automatically at the gates (ARS_CACHE_STALE_ADVISORY_DAYS, default 30; opt-in live re-verification via ARS_CACHE_REVALIDATE=1).
To invalidate the entire cache at once (e.g. after a systemic resolver bug cached many false negatives), delete the database file directly: rm ~/.cache/ars/verification.db. It is recreated empty on the next run.
Implementation:
python3 scripts/ars_cache_invalidate.py $ARGUMENTS
Mode reference: docs/design/2026-05-21-v3.10-182-promote-citation-gate-spec.md §2 Delta 2.
Note: this command was ported from the ARS Claude Code plugin (Imbad0202/academic-research-skills, CC-BY-NC-4.0). The deterministic tooling it references (scripts/*.py, MODE_REGISTRY.md, shared/) ships in the upstream repo — clone it alongside this plugin if you need script-based features such as the citation verification gate.
