diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ff5c782b407f..a4ee80a6539a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ packages/tsdocs/fixtures/monorepo/docs
 /docs/site/readmes
 /docs/apidocs/reports-temp
 /docs/apidocs/models
+*.tsbuildinfo
 
 # TBD: Exclude api reports from git for now
 /docs/apidocs/reports
diff --git a/packages/build/config/tsconfig.common.json b/packages/build/config/tsconfig.common.json
index 5aa85c2b0b3b..a3791d4ccf47 100644
--- a/packages/build/config/tsconfig.common.json
+++ b/packages/build/config/tsconfig.common.json
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
     // FIXME(bajtos) LB4 is not compatible with this setting yet
     "strictPropertyInitialization": false,
 
+    "incremental": true,
+
     "lib": ["es2018", "esnext.asynciterable"],
     "module": "commonjs",
     "moduleResolution": "node",
diff --git a/packages/cli/generators/project/templates/_.gitignore b/packages/cli/generators/project/templates/_.gitignore
index 050eec5fe6eb..94189d4dc6fd 100644
--- a/packages/cli/generators/project/templates/_.gitignore
+++ b/packages/cli/generators/project/templates/_.gitignore
@@ -62,3 +62,6 @@ api-docs/
 
 # Transpiled JavaScript files from Typescript
 /dist
+
+# Cache used by TypeScript's incremental build
+*.tsbuildinfo
diff --git a/packages/cli/generators/project/templates/tsconfig.json.ejs b/packages/cli/generators/project/templates/tsconfig.json.ejs
index 8ffddb55b332..18efabbcecf0 100644
--- a/packages/cli/generators/project/templates/tsconfig.json.ejs
+++ b/packages/cli/generators/project/templates/tsconfig.json.ejs
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
     "resolveJsonModule": true,
     "skipLibCheck": true,
 
+    "incremental": true,
+
     "lib": ["es2018", "esnext.asynciterable"],
     "module": "commonjs",
     "moduleResolution": "node",
diff --git a/packages/cli/test/integration/generators/app.integration.js b/packages/cli/test/integration/generators/app.integration.js
index 276cd7c04ca5..a20be99649a5 100644
--- a/packages/cli/test/integration/generators/app.integration.js
+++ b/packages/cli/test/integration/generators/app.integration.js
@@ -116,6 +116,10 @@ describe('app-generator specific files', () => {
     const pkg = JSON.parse(await readFile('package.json'));
     expect(pkg.scripts).to.have.property('migrate', 'node ./dist/migrate');
   });
+
+  it('creates .gitignore', () => {
+    assert.fileContent('.gitignore', /^\*\.tsbuildinfo$/m);
+  });
 });
 
 describe('app-generator with docker disabled', () => {