diff --git a/7a_temp_coop_munge.yml b/7a_temp_coop_munge.yml
index eff88fea..62a1039c 100644
--- a/7a_temp_coop_munge.yml
+++ b/7a_temp_coop_munge.yml
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ sources:
   - 7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_merge_fxns.R
   - 7a_temp_coop_munge/src/crosswalk_fxns.R
   - lib/src/require_local.R
+  - lib/src/generic_utils.R
 
 targets:
 
@@ -22,12 +23,25 @@ targets:
     depends:
      - 7a_temp_coop_munge/out/all_coop_dat_linked.feather.ind
 
+# create the trigger file, which will not be checked into git
+# if we use a trigger file elsewhere, this could be called just once, in 1_fetch.
+# I see no reason to have different trigger files for different sections of the pipeline
+# if this is used elsewhere, since the intent is to keep modifying it
+# or the trigger file could be checked into git so that people building this part
+# for the first time don't get "Can't build implicit target 7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/always_stale_time.txt"
+# if this recipe is missing and the file doesn't exist
+  7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/always_stale_time.txt:
+    command: make_file_stale(target_name)
+
+# here, trigger_file is used to keep this parser_file list _always stale_, so it always gets rebuilt.
   7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/parser_files.yml:
     command: list_coop_files(target_name,
-      dirpath = I('7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_parsers'), dummy = I('2021-09-13'))
+      dirpath = I('7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_parsers'),
+      trigger_file = '7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/always_stale_time.txt')
 
   coop_parsers:
-    command: find_parser(coop_wants, '7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/parser_files.yml')
+    command: find_parser(coop_wants, '7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/parser_files.yml',
+      trigger_file = '7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/always_stale_time.txt')
 
   coop_munge_taskplan:
     command: create_coop_munge_taskplan(wants = coop_wants, parsers = coop_parsers)
diff --git a/7a_temp_coop_munge/src/crosswalk_fxns.R b/7a_temp_coop_munge/src/crosswalk_fxns.R
index 46a971d0..22271511 100644
--- a/7a_temp_coop_munge/src/crosswalk_fxns.R
+++ b/7a_temp_coop_munge/src/crosswalk_fxns.R
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-list_coop_files <- function(fileout, dirpath, dummy){
+list_coop_files <- function(fileout, dirpath, trigger_file){
+  make_file_stale(trigger_file)
   scipiper::sc_indicate(fileout,  data_file = list.files(dirpath, full.names = TRUE))
 }
 
diff --git a/7a_temp_coop_munge/src/parsing_task_fxns.R b/7a_temp_coop_munge/src/parsing_task_fxns.R
index a73e7fa1..483746d8 100644
--- a/7a_temp_coop_munge/src/parsing_task_fxns.R
+++ b/7a_temp_coop_munge/src/parsing_task_fxns.R
@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
-find_parser <- function(coop_wants, parser_filehash) {
-
+#' @param trigger_file is a file that will always be modified when it is used
+#'
+#' @details whenever `trigger_file` is used as an input, the function needs to call
+#' make_trigger_file_stale(trigger_file) to modify the file, keeping that input always stale
+#'
+#' in this function, the trigger_file is used we're building a hash table of the files in a directory,
+#' and since we can't rely on a directory as a dependency, we want to check changes to this diretory
+#' in a greedy way (i.e., every time).
+find_parser <- function(coop_wants, parser_filehash, trigger_file) {
+  make_file_stale(trigger_file)
   parser_files <- yaml::yaml.load_file(parser_filehash) %>% names()
   parser_env <- new.env()
   sapply(parser_files, source,  parser_env)
diff --git a/7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/parser_files.yml b/7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/parser_files.yml
index 5d1837ae..c0d3f7fc 100644
--- a/7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/parser_files.yml
+++ b/7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/parser_files.yml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_parsers/parse_indiana_files.R: f2a81bb1cbcb1767d4b58418c5b4fa7e
 7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_parsers/parse_manualentry_files.R: c9a32776901f585ca9140228f19511ad
 7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_parsers/parse_micorps_files.R: cbb2d98f8a9b987149c28da5e5f2f122
-7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_parsers/parse_missouri_files.R: e27494d559c3a3a39574f441e910e665
+7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_parsers/parse_missouri_files.R: baf12ef6aab287dfa26c635dcf771e10
 7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_parsers/parse_mndnr_files.R: 57b1b027d9ba7c1e821cd2fc7c8e7bdc
 7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_parsers/parse_mndow_coop_files.R: 6a6c233b3d6da67ee765bc11cb193d61
 7a_temp_coop_munge/src/data_parsers/parse_redlake_files.R: 8496c673c467c09219bfdb6d85ffa964
diff --git a/7b_temp_merge/out/source_metadata_for_release.csv.ind b/7b_temp_merge/out/source_metadata_for_release.csv.ind
index 846a1d28..1d1bbdfc 100644
--- a/7b_temp_merge/out/source_metadata_for_release.csv.ind
+++ b/7b_temp_merge/out/source_metadata_for_release.csv.ind
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-hash: 03e6cfda99af1b92b1bb210c4aaa6caa
+hash: 18e611c05b9a37c1a1277e059419d724
 
diff --git a/build/status/N2FfdGVtcF9jb29wX211bmdlL2xvZy83YV90ZW1wX2Nvb3BfbXVuZ2VfdGFza3MuaW5k.yml b/build/status/N2FfdGVtcF9jb29wX211bmdlL2xvZy83YV90ZW1wX2Nvb3BfbXVuZ2VfdGFza3MuaW5k.yml
index 4b4e10a3..062c496f 100644
--- a/build/status/N2FfdGVtcF9jb29wX211bmdlL2xvZy83YV90ZW1wX2Nvb3BfbXVuZ2VfdGFza3MuaW5k.yml
+++ b/build/status/N2FfdGVtcF9jb29wX211bmdlL2xvZy83YV90ZW1wX2Nvb3BfbXVuZ2VfdGFza3MuaW5k.yml
@@ -2,11 +2,11 @@ version: 0.3.0
 name: 7a_temp_coop_munge/log/7a_temp_coop_munge_tasks.ind
 type: file
 hash: 4a83a5fe0ac58c5f1086b7113747ec92
-time: 2021-12-02 21:30:18 UTC
+time: 2021-12-03 17:30:32 UTC
 depends:
   coop_munge_taskplan: 7484abdf608d66130428839ae8689053
   7a_temp_coop_munge_tasks.yml: a5d7b8331b77f242faa8e6c59cee1157
-  7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/parser_files.yml: 41f66e5aa9bdcd9b5211e20882d8240a
+  7a_temp_coop_munge/tmp/parser_files.yml: 0b5c793c466b44a1802a6aeb72cf23e3
 fixed: d47fa28c71f538b3724b78d50a486af1
 code:
   functions: {}
diff --git a/build/status/N2JfdGVtcF9tZXJnZS9vdXQvc291cmNlX21ldGFkYXRhX2Zvcl9yZWxlYXNlLmNzdi5pbmQ.yml b/build/status/N2JfdGVtcF9tZXJnZS9vdXQvc291cmNlX21ldGFkYXRhX2Zvcl9yZWxlYXNlLmNzdi5pbmQ.yml
index 2a36e5d3..8d9c88ba 100644
--- a/build/status/N2JfdGVtcF9tZXJnZS9vdXQvc291cmNlX21ldGFkYXRhX2Zvcl9yZWxlYXNlLmNzdi5pbmQ.yml
+++ b/build/status/N2JfdGVtcF9tZXJnZS9vdXQvc291cmNlX21ldGFkYXRhX2Zvcl9yZWxlYXNlLmNzdi5pbmQ.yml
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 version: 0.3.0
 name: 7b_temp_merge/out/source_metadata_for_release.csv.ind
 type: file
-hash: 86e2757ec368bd11bf900a08b467fde9
-time: 2021-12-01 23:34:55 UTC
+hash: 5e8277da52545d7d590e1bec493a9a06
+time: 2021-12-03 17:46:06 UTC
 depends:
-  7b_temp_merge/out/temp_data_with_sources.feather.ind: 2d3d7b033f909ab1644923fe00e08be1
+  7b_temp_merge/out/temp_data_with_sources.feather.ind: 18cae4ab1a4e59cd68a8b4961d6d3f65
   7b_temp_merge/in/source_metadata.csv.ind: 4fad5461061fbd7343eb58c534fdf787
 fixed: 70be80eb410015414c94b5cc0eccdf43
 code:
diff --git a/lib/src/generic_utils.R b/lib/src/generic_utils.R
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2ba4fab1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/src/generic_utils.R
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+
+#' write a unique value to a text file when this function is called.
+#' Replaces existing text in the file
+#'
+#' @param filepath a text filepath that can be written to
+#'
+#' @details this function is used to keep a dependency stale always, assuming this function is called whenever
+#' that file is referenced and there is at least a paired target use of the file.
+#' The file is kept stale by writing the current time (with timezone offset) and a random number. The random
+#' number is used because this function could be called rapidly several times within the same second.
+make_file_stale <- function(filepath){
+  cat(file = filepath, paste0(format(Sys.time(), '%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S %z; random ID: '), sample(1E6, 1)))
+}