Where the caches live
| Tool | Cache location | Typical size | Clean command |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm | ~/.npm | 2–10 GB | npm cache clean --force |
| Yarn (classic) | ~/Library/Caches/Yarn | 1–8 GB | yarn cache clean |
| Yarn (berry) | ~/.yarn/berry/cache | 1–6 GB | yarn cache clean --all |
| pnpm | ~/Library/pnpm/store | 2–15 GB | pnpm store prune |
| Bun | ~/.bun/install/cache | 0.5–3 GB | bun pm cache rm |
| npx | ~/.npm/_npx | 0.5–2 GB | cleared with the npm cache |
All of these are download caches SAFE — packages come back from the registry on the next install. Check what you're sitting on first:
du -sh ~/.npm ~/Library/Caches/Yarn ~/Library/pnpm/store 2>/dev/nullThe real disk killer: forgotten node_modules
Caches are bounded; node_modules folders are not. Every tutorial you followed in 2024 left a 300 MB–1 GB folder behind. Find them all, sorted by last touch:
find ~/Projects -name node_modules -type d -prune -exec du -sh {} \; 2>/dev/null | sort -hrDelete the ones from projects you're done with — npm install recreates them from the lockfile whenever you return. If you prefer an interactive tool, npkill lists and deletes them with arrow keys:
npx npkillRule of thumb: the lockfile (package-lock.json, yarn.lock, pnpm-lock.yaml) is the project. node_modules is just its cached expansion.
Don't forget the adjacent caches
- Node version managers — old Node versions in
~/.nvm/versions(or~/Library/pnpm/nodejs,asdf): each is ~100–200 MB.nvm ls, thennvm uninstall <version>. - Build tool caches —
node_modules/.cache(webpack, babel, vite) goes with node_modules; Turborepo keeps~/Library/Caches/turborepo. - Electron & playwright binaries —
~/Library/Caches/electron,~/Library/Caches/ms-playwright. Safe; they re-download per version on demand.
FAQ
- Is
npm cache clean --forcesafe? - Yes —
~/.npmis purely a download cache. The--forceis npm being ceremonial, not a danger sign.npm cache verifyis the gentler option that only garbage-collects corrupt entries. - Will deleting node_modules break my project?
- No, as long as the lockfile is committed. The next
npm install/pnpm installrebuilds it identically. You only lose the time the reinstall takes. - Why does pnpm's store keep growing?
- It keeps every package version ever installed by any project until you run
pnpm store prune, which drops the ones no project references anymore.
Clean all of it in one click
DevCleaner (free, menu bar) scans npm, Yarn and pnpm caches alongside 19 other toolchains — Xcode, Gradle, Homebrew, pip, Cargo and more — rates every category Safe / Warning / Danger and shows exactly how much each will free before you click. An optional auto-clean rule with an age filter keeps the caches from creeping back.
Download DevCleaner — free ↓