Spotify Introduces XCRemoteCache: The iOS Remote Caching Tool that Cut Our Clean Build Times by 70%
Original post Introducing XCRemoteCache: The iOS Remote Caching Tool that Cut Our Clean Build Times by 70%
Article Summary
Spotify just open-sourced the tool that slashed their iOS build times by 70%. If your developers are waiting 10+ minutes for builds after rebasing, this could be a game-changer.
Spotify's infrastructure team built XCRemoteCache to solve a painful problem: developers were spending over 50% of their build time on clean builds that took 10+ minutes. The solution reuses CI-generated artifacts locally, applying target-level caching across their 400+ module iOS app.
Key Takeaways
- 70% reduction in clean build times, 6% faster incremental builds
- Works with existing projects using CocoaPods, Carthage, or custom setups
- Uses Git history to fingerprint dependencies without explicit configuration
- Developers now rebase twice as often, reducing merge conflicts
- Includes CocoaPods plugin and works with any HTTP server
XCRemoteCache cuts iOS clean build times by 70% by reusing CI artifacts locally, and it's now open source with minimal integration effort.
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This page summarizes “Introducing XCRemoteCache: The iOS Remote Caching Tool that Cut Our Clean Build Times by 70%” by Spotify, published Nov 16, 2021. All credit for the original work goes to the authors.
