i18n causes esbuild chunks to be cache-busted on each deploy

Start with the linked minimal reproduction, using angular.json, src/locale/messages.fr.xlf, and the ng build --localize entry point. Compare generated bundles and their i18n comments before and after changing the translation, then trace the localization build path. Done means unchanged chunk content keeps stable filenames across builds while localized output remains correct.

Command

build

Is this a regression?

• Yes, this behavior used to work in the previous version

The previous version in which this bug was not present was

Webpack builder

Description

Turning on esbuild is causing us to experience a large increase in the number of static requests served to our users (+9B requests/mo / +60% increase), leading to a substantial impact on our CDN bill.

Each spike in the graph above aligns with a deploy (no deploys on weekends), indicating that all assets appear to be cache-busted with each new build (whereas in practice only a fraction of the code is updated between versions).

Upon investigating where this could come from, I noticed that chunks with identical content between two build versions have different filename hashes, i.e., chunk-ASRRVFTX.js in the first one and chunk-MO3N5ZQM.js in the second one:

If you look carefully, you can notice that the chunk contents are not exactly identical—they differ by the value of the i18n: comment. Looking into it, that i18n hash is the same for all the chunks (in any locale) across a build and appears to be a SHA256 of all the localized dictionaries.

Since at least a couple of strings are going to change across builds (we have ~14k strings in the app), this effectively means that the entire app is cache-busted on each deploy, leading to increased infrastructure costs and degraded client-side performance.

Minimal Reproduction

Minimal repro is available here: https://github.com/laurentgoudet/angular-i18n-esbuild-bug

Steps I performed:

• ng new
• ng add @angular/localize
• Configured an fr locale in angular.json
• Added some string in app.ts
• Ran ng extract-i18n to extract the dictionary
• Copied messages.xlf to src/locale/messages.fr.xlf
• Ran ng build --localize to run the localized build

ng build --localize
Initial chunk files   | Names         |  Raw size | Estimated transfer size
main-BGVPYDPI.js      | main          | 221.57 kB |                61.67 kB
polyfills-25EJAOGH.js | polyfills     |  36.97 kB |                12.41 kB
styles-5INURTSO.css   | styles        |   0 bytes |                 0 bytes

                      | Initial total | 258.54 kB |                74.08 kB

Application bundle generation complete. [1.794 seconds]

• Observed that i18n: hash is the same between polyfills-<foo>.js & main-<foo>.js bundles in both en-US & fr

$ rg -l i18n:cf2ec5733a24b255a5f4c5407a5cd5747f51614f533bf44f15ae320960b64048 dist                                                                                          
dist/test-esbuild-i18n/browser/en-US/polyfills-PJEY6MCR.js
dist/test-esbuild-i18n/browser/fr/polyfills-PJEY6MCR.js
dist/test-esbuild-i18n/browser/en-US/main-YXPGXXTL.js
dist/test-esbuild-i18n/browser/fr/main-YXPGXXTL.js

• Add a translation for in the fr dictionary (src/locale/messages.fr.xlf)

• Run ng build --localize again

• Observe that the filename hashes have changed

ng build --localize
Initial chunk files   | Names         |  Raw size | Estimated transfer size
main-YXPGXXTL.js      | main          | 221.57 kB |                61.67 kB
polyfills-PJEY6MCR.js | polyfills     |  36.97 kB |                12.45 kB
styles-5INURTSO.css   | styles        |   0 bytes |                 0 bytes

                      | Initial total | 258.54 kB |                74.13 kB

Application bundle generation complete. [1.426 seconds]

Exception or Error

Your Environment

ng version

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   / △ \ | '_ \ / _` | | | | |/ _` | '__|   | |   | |    | |
  / ___ \| | | | (_| | |_| | | (_| | |      | |___| |___ | |
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Angular CLI: 20.0.5
Node: 22.15.0
Package Manager: npm 10.9.2
OS: darwin arm64

Angular: 20.0.6
... common, compiler, compiler-cli, core, forms, localize
... platform-browser, router

Package                      Version
------------------------------------------------------
@angular-devkit/architect    0.2000.5
@angular-devkit/core         20.0.5
@angular-devkit/schematics   20.0.5
@angular/build               20.0.5
@angular/cli                 20.0.5
@schematics/angular          20.0.5
rxjs                         7.8.2
typescript                   5.8.3
zone.js                      0.15.1

Anything else relevant?

No response