[Bug]: Automatically invalidate or version-key the .cache directory on Storybook upgrades

[valentinpalkovic]

Describe the bug

When upgrading Storybook versions, users frequently encounter build errors or unexpected runtime behavior in the manager/preview UI. These issues are often resolved by manually deleting the node_modules/.cache/storybook directory.

Currently, the cache does not seem to be strictly tied to the specific version of Storybook installed, leading to "stale" cache issues that are difficult for users to debug.

Reproduction link

Reproduction steps

System

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Additional context

No response

[dosubot]

Storybook does not currently invalidate or version-key the .cache/storybook directory on upgrades. This can lead to stale cache issues after upgrading, which often require manually deleting node_modules/.cache/storybook to resolve build or runtime errors. There is no code in Storybook that ties the cache to the installed version or clears it automatically during upgrades—cache management relies on manual intervention or webpack’s default heuristics¹.

If you’re using Vite, you can mitigate some cache-related issues by adding server: { preTransformRequests: false } to your Vite config. This ensures the cache is fully built before Storybook starts serving requests and can prevent intermittent loading errors and infinite spinners².

A potential improvement would be for Storybook to version-key or automatically invalidate the cache on upgrades, but this is not implemented yet.

If you have a minimal reproduction or specific steps that consistently trigger the issue, please share them to help with further troubleshooting.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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Footnotes

1. Code review: no version-keying or auto-invalidation of .cache/storybook ↩

2. Issue with cache and Vite workaround ↩