diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
index 75ae83eecbbe..b5e16b9f526c 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
@@ -551,8 +551,11 @@ export const cliOptionsConfig: VitestCLIOptions = {
     subcommands: {
       dir: null,
     },
+    default: true,
     // cache can only be "false" or an object
     transform(cache) {
+      if (typeof cache !== 'boolean' && cache)
+        throw new Error('--cache.dir is deprecated')
       if (cache)
         return {}
       return cache
diff --git a/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts b/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts
index 9b602548ff32..1d4a3ce636cf 100644
--- a/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts
+++ b/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts
@@ -213,6 +213,7 @@ test('maxConcurrency is parsed correctly', () => {
 test('cache is parsed correctly', () => {
   expect(getCLIOptions('--cache')).toEqual({ cache: {} })
   expect(getCLIOptions('--no-cache')).toEqual({ cache: false })
+  expect(() => getCLIOptions('--cache.dir=./cache')).toThrowError('--cache.dir is deprecated')
 })
 
 test('shuffle is parsed correctly', () => {