What happens when taxonomy terms change

Taxonomy invalidation covers changes to the term definitions that organize public content. HTML and progressive JSON listen to similar term lifecycle events, with a deliberate difference for term metadata.

Enable the two stores you need

Under Settings → POM Cache → General:

• enable Caching and Purge HTML on term changes for static HTML;
• enable Progressive JSON cache and Purge JSON on term changes for progressive batches.

All purge switches default to Disabled. Saving one does not change the other.

Shared term lifecycle

Both stores can clear when WordPress reports that a term was:

• created;
• edited;
• deleted.

Examples include renaming a category, changing a public slug, moving a term in a hierarchy, or deleting a menu section used to group archive results.

The complete enabled store for the current site is removed. One term can influence many pages and JSON contexts, so POM Cache does not try to identify one output file.

Difference in term metadata

HTML invalidation responds to public term metadata changes; metadata keys beginning with an underscore are treated as private and skipped.

Progressive JSON invalidation has a narrower metadata trigger: it clears automatically for the tax_position ordering value used by compatible POM taxonomy interfaces.

If another custom term field changes visible progressive JSON, clear JSON manually or use an integration that explicitly invalidates it.

Assigning a term is different

Changing which terms are assigned to a post is handled by the post-change invalidation settings, not the term-change settings.

Examples:

This distinction is important when testing.

Verify taxonomy invalidation

1. Generate HTML and JSON for a taxonomy-driven archive.
2. Note the two cache counts;
3. Rename a visible term and save;
4. Confirm only the stores with term purging enabled are cleared;
5. Request the origin routes and verify the new label;
6. Reorder the term through the supported interface;
7. Confirm JSON also clears for that order change;
8. Change a post's term assignment;
9. Confirm that action follows the post purge settings instead.

Plan for high-volume taxonomy imports

Imports that create or update many terms can repeatedly clear a warm site. Coordinate the operation:

1. Complete the taxonomy source update;
2. Complete related post assignments;
3. Clear the required stores once after the final state;
4. Restore the normal automatic switches;
5. Verify grouping, order, counts, and next-batch links;
6. Invalidate affected CDN paths.

Because POM Cache has no preloader, the first requests after the final clear regenerate the routes.

For more on the broad scope and recovery cost, read Understand site-wide invalidation.