Caching Strategies

Caching strategies store and reuse build results to avoid redundant work. Implementing effective caching strategies improves both local development speed and CI/CD pipeline efficiency.

What Are Caching Strategies

Caching strategies define how build artifacts and intermediate results are stored, retrieved, and invalidated. Effective caching enables skipping work that has already been done, dramatically reducing build and test times.

Design systems benefit significantly from caching due to their size and the frequency of builds. Caching transforms repeated operations from expensive recomputation to quick retrieval.

How Caching Strategies Work

Local caching stores results on developer machines. Dependency caches avoid repeated downloads. Build caches skip repeated compilation. Local caches accelerate individual developer workflows.

Remote caching shares results across machines and team members. When one developer or CI run computes a result, others can reuse it. Remote caches multiply caching benefits across teams and pipelines.

Cache key design determines when cached results can be reused. Keys must uniquely identify inputs that affect outputs. Too-specific keys reduce hit rates. Too-generic keys risk incorrect reuse.

Invalidation ensures caches do not return stale results. When inputs change, cached results must be invalidated. Incorrect invalidation produces wrong builds. Correct invalidation maintains reliability.

Key Considerations

• Cache hit rates determine effectiveness
• Key design requires balancing specificity and reusability
• Invalidation must be correct to maintain reliability
• Storage costs matter for large caches
• Monitoring reveals optimization opportunities

Common Questions

What should be cached?

Common cache targets include dependencies, build outputs, test results, and generated artifacts. Items that are expensive to produce and frequently needed benefit most from caching. Items that change frequently or are cheap to produce may not be worth caching.

How do remote caches work?

Remote caches store artifacts in shared storage accessible to all builds. Cloud storage, dedicated cache servers, or CI platform features provide remote caching. Results are uploaded after computation and downloaded when cache keys match.

How do organizations manage cache storage?

Storage management includes setting retention policies, pruning old entries, and monitoring usage. Unlimited caches eventually exhaust storage. Policies balance availability against costs.

Summary

Caching strategies improve build performance by storing and reusing results. Success requires appropriate cache targets, good key design, and correct invalidation. Organizations should implement caching strategies to accelerate both development and CI/CD workflows.