Expected behaviour of experimental_createPersister

[sgcullen]

Using the experimental_createPersister, i notice that if a gcTime and maxAge are set as follows as per the docs: https://tanstack.com/query/v5/docs/framework/react/plugins/createPersister

import AsyncStorage from '@react-native-async-storage/async-storage'
import { QueryClient } from '@tanstack/react-query'
import { experimental_createPersister } from '@tanstack/query-persist-client-core'

const queryClient = new QueryClient({
  defaultOptions: {
    queries: {
      gcTime: 1000 * 30, // 30 seconds
      persister: experimental_createPersister({
        storage: AsyncStorage,
        maxAge: 1000 * 60 * 60 * 12, // 12 hours
      }),
    },
  },
})

...the data is stored to the persister storage but it is also refetched unless a staleTime is also set.

In the context of the experimental_createPersister, what is the difference between maxAge and staleTime and how best should they be used together?

Many thanks!

[TkDodo]

maxAge is the time until data should be used from the external storage. If we restore data and see it’s older than maxAge, we won’t use it.

staleTime, as usual, just defines if the data is fresh or stale. If it’s stale, we’ll give it to you and do a background refetch. If it’s fresh, we’ll give it to you without a refetch.