DiskBroom › What it cleans › How to safely clear npm, pnpm, and Yarn caches

Node caches: gigabytes of packages you already installed.

~/.npm · ~/Library/Caches/pnpm · ~/Library/Caches/Yarn

What it is

Every package your projects install is kept as a compressed copy so future installs skip the network. npm calls it _cacache, pnpm keeps a content-addressed store, Yarn keeps tarballs — the idea is identical.

How big it gets

Commonly 1–5 GB per package manager; on this machine's most recent scan, the npm cache alone was 2.86 GB. Heavy monorepo work pushes higher.

What happens if you delete it

Completely safe: caches re-fill from the registry as you install. Your node_modules folders and lockfiles are untouched — the only cost is slower first installs while the cache warms back up.

How to remove it manually — free, no app needed

1. npm: npm cache clean --force (npm insists on --force; it verifies integrity otherwise).
2. pnpm: pnpm store prune removes unreferenced packages — the safe default.
3. Yarn: yarn cache clean
4. Verify what came back: du -sh ~/.npm ~/Library/Caches/pnpm ~/Library/Caches/Yarn 2>/dev/null

Risk rating

Safe. Pure re-downloadable cache, verified by checksums on the way back in. Nothing unique ever lives here.

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