build-cache-clean

Build Cache Clean

Frees disk space by deleting regenerable build output, never source, device state, or model data. Every path here is gitignored and safe to delete — the next build/install recreates it.

Find the big offenders first

.build/ and Xcode build/ directories are invisible to a plain top-level du because they're dotfiles or nested — always check explicitly, per repo:

# Overall disk headroom
df -h /

# Per-repo SwiftPM + Xcode build dirs (the usual multi-GB culprits)
find ~/code -maxdepth 4 -type d \( -name ".build" -o -name "build" \) -exec du -sh {} \; 2>/dev/null

# Global Xcode caches (shared across all repos, not per-repo)
du -sh ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData
du -sh ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives
du -sh ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Caches

# Simulator device data (see caution below — usually NOT cache to clear)
du -sh ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/*/

A repo's .build/ (SwiftPM module cache + resolved build products) and build/ (Xcode build products) commonly dwarf everything else in the tree combined — 50–100+ GB is normal for an actively developed multi-target app after months without a clean.

Safe to delete — regenerates on next build

# Per-repo SwiftPM build cache
rm -rf path/to/repo/.build
rm -rf path/to/repo/apps/<app>/.build

# Per-repo/target Xcode build products
rm -rf path/to/repo/apps/<app>/build

# Global Xcode DerivedData (shared cache across all Xcode projects)
rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/*

# Global CoreSimulator caches (not device data — see below)
rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Caches/*

Verify a path is actually gitignored before deleting if you didn't create it yourself:

git -C path/to/repo check-ignore -v .build build

Adjacent dev-tool caches, same trip

These aren't Apple-specific but pile up alongside Xcode caches on the same machine and are equally safe to clear:

npm cache clean --force
pnpm store prune                      # only removes unreferenced packages
pip cache purge
brew cleanup -s

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/ms-playwright/*      # browser binaries, redownload on demand
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/<Browser>/*          # e.g. "Microsoft Edge", "Google Chrome" render caches
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/typescript/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/node-gyp/*