Cache

Overview

The CLI caches registry manifests and component assets on disk so repeated installs are instant and work offline.

motion-core cache

lets you inspect that cache or clear it when you need to force a refresh.

Usage

# Print cache location and TTLs
motion-core cache

# Delete every cached manifest and asset
motion-core cache --clear --force

# Print cache location and TTLs
motion-core cache

# Delete every cached manifest and asset
motion-core cache --clear --force

Options

Flag	Description
`--clear`	Requests cache deletion. On its own it only prints a warning, acting as a safeguard against accidental data loss.
`--force`	Must be combined with `--clear` to actually remove the cache directory.

What gets cached?

Registry manifest (
registry.json
) – includes metadata about every component (name, slug, dependencies, preview assets). Default TTL: 10 minutes.
Component manifest (
components.json
) – a map of registry paths → base64 encoded file contents that power
motion-core add
. Default TTL: 24 hours, also used as a fallback when offline.

Both TTLs can be customized via environment variables:

export MOTION_CORE_CACHE_DIR="$HOME/.cache/motion-core"
export MOTION_CORE_CACHE_TTL_MS=120000       # registry TTL (2 min)
export MOTION_CORE_ASSET_CACHE_TTL_MS=3600000 # asset TTL (1 h)

export MOTION_CORE_CACHE_DIR="$HOME/.cache/motion-core"
export MOTION_CORE_CACHE_TTL_MS=120000       # registry TTL (2 min)
export MOTION_CORE_ASSET_CACHE_TTL_MS=3600000 # asset TTL (1 h)

When to clear the cache

Registry updates introduced new components but
motion-core list
still shows an old version.
After manually editing files inside the cache directory and wanting to revert to a clean state.

Remember that clearing the cache deletes every cached manifest and asset. The next CLI command will re-download them, so make sure you have an internet connection or keep a backup if you rely on offline usage.