Where Does Poetry Store Cache and Virtualenvs?
Poetry cache, virtualenvs and auth.toml locations on Windows, macOS and Linux.
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Poetry splits state three ways: a download cache, a virtualenvs directory and an auth.toml for repository credentials. Defaults follow OS conventions.
Virtualenv placement surprises newcomers. In-project versus cached-central venvs is a setting, and the default puts them outside the project.
Where Poetry stores this, by platform
%LOCALAPPDATA%\pypoetry
Default cache root with artifacts and virtualenvs subfolders. Confirm with poetry config --list; POETRY_* variables override. auth.toml holds repository credentials.
~/.cache/pypoetry
Same role. Check virtualenvs.in-project setting when venvs seem missing from the cache tree.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find my real Poetry paths?
Run poetry config --list to print cache-dir and virtualenvs.path. Those values reflect env overrides, so trust them over documented defaults.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.