angular / angular/angular-cli

Add configurable size limit for persistent build cache with LRU eviction

Open
#33,320 4 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area: @angular/cli gemini-triaged needs: more info
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

### Command

build, serve

### Description

The Angular CLI persistent disk cache (`.angular/cache`) grows without bounds. On large projects, a single checkout accumulates tens of gigabytes of cached build artifacts. In our case, a single checkout reached **29 GB**.

This was previously raised in #25116 and closed as not feasible with Webpack. Since Angular 17+, the build system uses esbuild, so the original constraint no longer applies.

### Describe the solution you'd like

Add a configurable size cap (e.g., `cli.cache.maxSize`) with LRU eviction when the limit is reached. This is a common pattern in build tooling — Turborepo, Gradle, and most browsers' HTTP caches all implement bounded persistent caches.

Example configuration:
```json
"cli": {
"cache": {
"enabled": true,
"maxSize": "2GB"
}
}
```

When the cache exceeds `maxSize`, the oldest/least-recently-used entries are evicted.

### Describe alternatives you've considered

- Periodically running `ng cache clean` or manually deleting `.angular/cache` — works but is a manual maintenance burden, especially for developers unaware the cache is growing.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with the persistent cache used by the `build` and `serve` commands, and compare it with the existing `ng cache clean` entry point for `.angular/cache`. Define how `cli.cache.maxSize` is configured and measured, then verify that least-recently-used entries are evicted once the configured cap is exceeded.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
angular, typescript
Domain
build-system, cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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