SVGO multipass termination lacks a configurable pass limit

Question

SVGO's multipass option runs the plugin pipeline repeatedly until the optimized output stabilizes, which helps cleanup and path plugins reach a fixed point that a single pass would miss. The public configuration, however, exposes only the boolean toggle: there is no documented setting for a maximum number of passes per file.This leaves termination as the main open constraint for build pipelines that optimize large batches of SVG assets. Termination appears to depend on internal stabilization logic that has shifted across major SVGO releases, and the configuration reference does not state a fixed upper bound on iterations or how such a bound interacts with plugins whose output could keep changing between passes.Assuming recent SVGO 3.x used as a Node.js library or CLI:Is there any supported configuration option to cap the number of multipass iterations for a single file?If a cap exists only internally, is that limit documented and stable across versions, or should pipeline authors treat multipass termination as implementation-defined?What is a reasonable way to bound optimization time for very large assets without disabling multipass entirely?

Tasadduq Burney · Answer

SVGO Multipass Iteration Limits
SVGO 3.x has no documented configuration to set a maximum number of multipass iterations for a single file.
Confirmed facts

The multipass option is a boolean toggle only.
Termination occurs when a pass yields an output identical to the previous pass.
No public parameter such as maxPasses exists in the API or CLI.

Likely explanation
Because the stop condition is based on string equality after each full pipeline run, the iteration count depends on how quickly the plugins converge. Non‑deterministic plugins can cause indefinite looping, making the limit implementation‑defined and version‑dependent.
Reasonable ways to bound optimization time

Set multipass: false to force a single pass.
Wrap the SVGO process in an external timeout (e.g., timeout on Unix) to abort after a configurable number of seconds.
Limit the active plugin set to deterministic plugins only.
Run a quick dry‑run without multipass, measure time, then enable multipass only if acceptable.

SVGO multipass termination lacks a configurable pass limit

1 answer

SVGO Multipass Iteration Limits

Confirmed facts

Likely explanation

Reasonable ways to bound optimization time

Your perspective belongs here.

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