How to clear the npm cache on a Mac.

Where the caches live and how to clear them

npm keeps its cache in ~/.npm. Check its size and clear it:

du -sh ~/.npm
npm cache clean --force

Yarn (classic) caches in ~/Library/Caches/Yarn:

yarn cache clean

pnpm uses a content-addressable store in ~/Library/pnpm/store; prune unreferenced packages with:

pnpm store prune

Clearing a package manager cache is always safe: the worst case is that the next install re-downloads packages from the registry. Note that pnpm is the exception where blunt deletion is a bad idea — projects hard-link into the store, so use pnpm store prune rather than deleting the folder.

The caches people forget

npm is rarely the biggest offender. On a typical development Mac these also accumulate for years:

• Homebrew: brew cleanup --prune=all (cache in ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew)
• pip: pip cache purge
• CocoaPods: pod cache clean --all
• Gradle: ~/.gradle/caches — often several GB
• Cargo (Rust): ~/.cargo/registry
• Go: go clean -modcache
• Xcode DerivedData — usually the single largest one; see our DerivedData guide.

Checking them all at once

RepoSweep scans every one of these well-known cache locations in a single pass — npm, Yarn, pip, Homebrew, CocoaPods, Swift Package Manager, Go, Playwright, Gradle, Maven, Cargo, and Xcode — shows how big each is and how it regenerates, and moves what you select to macOS Trash so it stays reversible. Scanning is free without limits; see pricing for cleanup.