> What I don't understand is why dependency download isn't a separate task you do before compilation. FIRST you download all the dependencies to stabilize that,

> What I don't understand is why dependency download isn't a separate task you do before compilation. FIRST you download all the dependencies to stabilize that, then you build the code. This is what bazel does. It also offers a `bazel fetch` to pre-download things before going offline (ex: flight).