--- title: Unusual Builds with Bytes | daily.dev description: A bug was discovered in Bazel's Build without Bytes (BwoB) feature where the `--remote_download_minimal` flag was causing excessive artifact downloads,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/unusual-builds-with-bytes-g2et8qars twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Unusual Builds with Bytes | daily.dev og:description: A bug was discovered in Bazel's Build without Bytes (BwoB) feature where the `--remote_download_minimal` flag was causing excessive artifact downloads,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/unusual-builds-with-bytes-g2et8qars og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/G2ET8qArs.png og:image:alt: Unusual Builds with Bytes og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Unusual Builds with Bytes **[BuildBuddy Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/buildbuddy)** · 9 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A bug was discovered in Bazel's Build without Bytes (BwoB) feature where the `--remote_download_minimal` flag was causing excessive artifact downloads, sometimes reaching hundreds of gigabytes. The root cause is Bazel's blob TTL mechanism: when a remotely cached artifact's TTL (default 3 hours) expires, Bazel downloads the entire artifact locally instead of re-validating remotely. This is especially problematic in long-lived Bazel JVM processes like those used in BuildBuddy Workflows with Firecracker MicroVM snapshots. A fix has been submitted upstream and will be included in Bazel 9.x, 8.2.0, and 7.6.0. As a workaround for older versions, users can set `--experimental_remote_cache_ttl` to a very large value (e.g., `10000d`), though this comes with caveats around LRU cache eviction causing stale metadata. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Remote Cache CDC: Reusing Bytes](https://daily.dev/posts/remote-cache-cdc-reusing-bytes-b2fv2gke6) · BuildBuddy Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Accessing external resources reliably with Bazel](https://daily.dev/posts/accessing-external-resources-reliably-with-bazel-1skvfsyoj) · Planet Haskell · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Bazel remote caching and insights in Tuist](https://daily.dev/posts/bazel-remote-caching-and-insights-in-tuist-mdlrtqhx3) · Tuist · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#bazel](https://daily.dev/tags/bazel) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/unusual-builds-with-bytes-g2et8qars) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Unusual Builds with Bytes","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/unusual-builds-with-bytes-g2et8qars","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/unusual-builds-with-bytes-g2et8qars"},"datePublished":"2026-07-26T07:48:47.104Z","dateModified":"2026-07-26T07:52:00.853Z","description":"A bug was discovered in Bazel's Build without Bytes (BwoB) feature where the `--remote_download_minimal` flag was causing excessive artifact downloads,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8a05bb22bc813cda5dbcc041c604b1db?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8a05bb22bc813cda5dbcc041c604b1db?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"BuildBuddy Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"BuildBuddy Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s---X2Wa4pv--/c_limit,w_256/f_auto,q_auto/v1785052099/logos/buildbuddy?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/buildbuddy"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/unusual-builds-with-bytes-g2et8qars","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"bazel","timeRequired":"PT9M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"BuildBuddy Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/buildbuddy"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Unusual Builds with Bytes"}]} ```