Governed Cache

A governed cache differs from a performance cache in what it is protecting. Performance caching exists to reduce latency; governed caching exists to ensure that a question already answered under review returns the reviewed answer rather than a fresh generation that may differ. This matters wherever consistency is itself a requirement — policy interpretation, benefit eligibility, clinical guidance — because two employees asking the same question in the same week should not receive materially different responses. The design question is invalidation: a cached answer that outlives the content it was derived from becomes confidently wrong, so the cache must be tied to the lifecycle of its sources.

Governed answers in Centralpoint are computed once and served from the local index afterwards, so an identical question does not re-enter the model. Token/Fee Regulation treats this as cost control as well as consistency control, suppressing redundant charges from repeat requests while the Interaction Log still records that the question was asked and which cached answer satisfied it.