Safety

Is it safe to delete the npm cache?

Yes. The cache is a download accelerator, not your app. Clearing it is one of the safest reclaim moves on a full SSD.

Manual clear

npm cache verify
npm cache clean --force
# typical location
# macOS/Linux: ~/.npm
# Windows: %LocalAppData%\npm-cache

What it does not do

• It does not remove node_modules inside projects.
• It does not uninstall global packages.
• It does not fix wrong versions in package.json.

Other package caches on the same disk

npm is rarely alone. Each of these is a download cache its tool rebuilds:

• ~/.cache/pip and conda pkgs for Python
• ~/.pub-cache (Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pub\Cache) for Dart and Flutter
• Go build and Deno caches, Gradle, NuGet and CocoaPods
• ~/.cache/pre-commit hook environments

Docker build cache

If you build images, Docker keeps every layer it ever built. This clears the build cache and untagged images while keeping your tagged images, containers and volumes:

docker system df
docker builder prune
docker image prune

On Windows the freed space stays inside Docker’s virtual disk until that disk is compacted.

FAQ

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