Pants

Pants can read and write remote cache entries through the Remote Execution API. NativeLink can provide the remote store and Action Cache for Pants goals without changing BUILD files.

Start NativeLink

Start a NativeLink server that exposes CAS and Action Cache on localhost:50051 with instance name main. The Docker quickstart in Getting Started → Quickstart is enough for local cache validation.

Configure Pants

Add the remote cache settings to pants.toml:

[GLOBAL]
remote_cache_read = true
remote_cache_write = true
remote_store_address = "grpc://localhost:50051"
remote_instance_name = "main"

For a shared deployment, replace localhost:50051 with your NativeLink endpoint and use the same instance name your server config exposes.

Run a goal

Run any Pants goal as usual:

pants test ::

The first run uploads results. A second run against the same inputs should read cached process results from NativeLink.

Remote execution

Pants remote execution uses the same Remote Execution API, but it needs a worker environment that matches the actions Pants sends. Start with remote caching, then add remote execution once you have worker platform properties and toolchains aligned.

Troubleshooting

• No cache hits on the second run. Check that remote_cache_write and remote_cache_read are both enabled.
• Instance-name errors. Match remote_instance_name to the NativeLink config. The local examples use main.
• Connection failures. Pants expects a grpc:// URL in remote_store_address for a plaintext endpoint, or grpcs:// for TLS.

FAQ