Speeding up build times by caching assets

[perry]

Hey mjgs! welcome to netlify. Yes, there is a gatsby plugin you can try - (if you need support with that, please post in #Netlify-support:build-plugins)

But first, here is a stack of information about caching - you shouldn’t have to do a fresh install every time, really. We defininitely cache dependencies between subsequent builds (unless something is configured differently than it should be)
maybe these are helpful:

[Support Guide] How does Netlify’s CDN handle caching files?

Last reviewed by Netlify Support in July 2025 While the topic of caching effectively is complex, Netlify’s solution is designed to be automatic and worry-free. It shouldn’t require any special configuration or build tools like cache-busting or service workers to deliver an optimal experience. What can go wrong? Some cache-busting techniques can make your site build and load more slowly. Scarier still, modifying Netlify’s default caching settings can break atomic rollbacks and deploys, which a…

[Support Guide] Making the most of Netlify's CDN cache

Last reviewed by Netlify Support in July 2025 Our CDN derives much of its efficiency from files whose checksums don’t change between deploys. For instance, in a blog, you usually write or update one article in one file, while the rest of the content remains unchanged. In this typical use case, we don’t need to re-upload and re-process these files, since our CDN already has them stored - no checksums have changed except the one file. This also means that your visitors’ browsers don’t need to re…

[Support Guide] Making sure your builds use appropriate resources for Netlify's build system

Last reviewed by Netlify Support: July 2025 Hopefully, your builds at Netlify “just work”, once you have things configured. That’s the intention and the common case, but for those times when your reality falls a bit short of our dream, this article talks in detail about some of the limitations that customers run into while building and how to work around them. The operation of Netlify’s build system is pretty well documented in several places such as: our official documentation you can see …

[Support Guide] How can I optimize my Netlify build time?

Last reviewed by Netlify Support in July 2025 AskNetlify’s Version How can I avoid generating a deploy preview? How can I skip a build when updating my repo with my git provider? Copy either prompt above and paste it into AskNetlify, and it’ll break down this info. You can also ask clarifying questions. Still need help? No problem! We’re happy to clarify. Last reviewed by Netlify Support - October 2024 If you are interested in learning more about how our bots approa…

[Support Guide] How long should Netlify builds take?

Last updated by Netlify Support in July 2025 The only universal answer to this is: it varies. More detail would probably be helpful, right? Below we explain which factors affect the lengths of builds on Netlify One key factor is the site itself. Larger sites will take longer to build than smaller ones, and things like images and video can impact this (if those assets need to be downloaded or processed during build). Another factor is the static site generator (SSG) being used (…