diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 91e60255b44d5..7b2c8a301c245 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ pack
 coverage
 .nyc_output
 .LAST_BUILD
-*.swp
+*.sw[a-z]
+*~
 
 # we don't want tsconfig at the root
 /tsconfig.json
diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index 505c8ef99d457..3a3d42cac6f0f 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ BUILD_INDICATOR=".BUILD_COMPLETED"
 rm -rf $BUILD_INDICATOR
 
 export PATH=node_modules/.bin:$PATH
+export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096 ${NODE_OPTIONS:-}"
 
 # Speed up build by reusing calculated tree hashes
 # On dev machine, this speeds up the TypeScript part of the build by ~30%.
diff --git a/bump.sh b/bump.sh
index 27bdd8a2584f1..5a23b6019b79e 100755
--- a/bump.sh
+++ b/bump.sh
@@ -6,8 +6,9 @@ if [ -z "${ver}" ]; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
-/bin/bash ./install.sh
+export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096 ${NODE_OPTIONS:-}"
 
+/bin/bash ./install.sh
 
 lerna publish --force-publish=* --skip-npm --skip-git --repo-version ${ver}
 
@@ -23,4 +24,3 @@ cat > /tmp/context.json <<HERE
 HERE
 
 ./node_modules/.bin/conventional-changelog -p angular -i CHANGELOG.md -s --context /tmp/context.json
-
diff --git a/create-missing-libraries.sh b/create-missing-libraries.sh
index ae717027e1f8f..76920e9f4076c 100755
--- a/create-missing-libraries.sh
+++ b/create-missing-libraries.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 set -euo pipefail
 
 export PATH=node_modules/.bin:$PATH
+export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096 ${NODE_OPTIONS:-}"
 
 # Making sure the bare minimum packages allowing be able to test-build the generated packages is available:
 lerna exec --scope=cfn2ts                           \
diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
index 699c3502ffb15..eb15b75e51142 100755
--- a/install.sh
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 set -euo pipefail
 
+export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096 ${NODE_OPTIONS:-}"
+
+
 echo "============================================================================================="
 echo "installing repo-global dependencies..."
 npm i --no-package-lock --global-style
diff --git a/pack.sh b/pack.sh
index 273d7571514f2..a5684f6351d83 100755
--- a/pack.sh
+++ b/pack.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 # later read by bundle-beta.sh.
 set -e
 export PATH=$PWD/node_modules/.bin:$PATH
+export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096 ${NODE_OPTIONS:-}"
 root=$PWD
 
 distdir="$PWD/dist"
diff --git a/scripts/builddown b/scripts/builddown
index 9f104cc199737..870128f91fd8d 100755
--- a/scripts/builddown
+++ b/scripts/builddown
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 set -euo pipefail
+
+export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096 ${NODE_OPTIONS:-}"
+
 scriptdir=$(cd $(dirname $0) && pwd)
 scope=$(${scriptdir}/current-scope)
 exec lerna run build --scope ${scope} --include-filtered-dependents
diff --git a/scripts/buildup b/scripts/buildup
index d0efc4de902b6..8e2843b3d43ec 100755
--- a/scripts/buildup
+++ b/scripts/buildup
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 set -euo pipefail
+
+export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096 ${NODE_OPTIONS:-}"
+
 scriptdir=$(cd $(dirname $0) && pwd)
 scope=$(${scriptdir}/current-scope)
 exec lerna run build --scope ${scope} --include-filtered-dependencies
diff --git a/scripts/regen-l1.sh b/scripts/regen-l1.sh
index bc6dd410b9e7b..8a38a44d22d09 100755
--- a/scripts/regen-l1.sh
+++ b/scripts/regen-l1.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/bash
+export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096 ${NODE_OPTIONS:-}"
+
 rm -f packages/@aws-cdk/*/lib/*.generated.*
 node_modules/.bin/lerna --scope @aws-cdk/cfnspec run build
 node_modules/.bin/lerna --scope cfn2ts run build
diff --git a/scripts/run-integ-parallel b/scripts/run-integ-parallel
index ed48c73e0e6a8..a5c1a0284c131 100755
--- a/scripts/run-integ-parallel
+++ b/scripts/run-integ-parallel
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # Run unit tests in parallel in different regions
 set -euo pipefail
+
+export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096 ${NODE_OPTIONS:-}"
+
 lerna=${LERNA:-node_modules/.bin/lerna}
 
 # Only regions that support most services
diff --git a/scripts/update-dependencies.sh b/scripts/update-dependencies.sh
index 2be80a14ca63d..f54ed0d6d8b76 100755
--- a/scripts/update-dependencies.sh
+++ b/scripts/update-dependencies.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 set -euo pipefail
 
+export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096 ${NODE_OPTIONS:-}"
+
 #----------------------------------------------------------------------
 # PARSE ARGS