diff --git a/server/app/app.py b/server/app/app.py
index 1330774e..639a6b2a 100644
--- a/server/app/app.py
+++ b/server/app/app.py
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@ import logging
 
 from flask import Flask, redirect, current_app, make_response, render_template, abort
 from flask import Blueprint, request, send_from_directory
-from flask_caching import Cache
-from flask_compress import Compress
 from flask_cors import CORS
 from flask_restful import Api, Resource
 
@@ -208,10 +206,6 @@ class Server:
         self.app = Flask(__name__, static_folder="../common/web/static")
         self.app.json_encoder = Float32JSONEncoder
 
-        self.cache = Cache(config={"CACHE_TYPE": "simple", "CACHE_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT": 860_000})
-        self.cache.init_app(self.app)
-
-        Compress(self.app)
         CORS(self.app, supports_credentials=True)
 
         # enable session data
diff --git a/server/cli/launch.py b/server/cli/launch.py
index e36e1b8b..06523ee8 100644
--- a/server/cli/launch.py
+++ b/server/cli/launch.py
@@ -6,12 +6,14 @@ import sys
 import webbrowser
 
 import click
+from flask_compress import Compress
 
 from server.common.utils import sort_options
 from server.common.errors import DatasetAccessError, ConfigurationError
 from server.data_common.matrix_loader import MatrixDataCacheManager
 from server.common.app_config import AppConfig
 from server.common.default_config import default_config
+from server.app.app import Server
 
 DEFAULT_CONFIG = AppConfig()
 
@@ -268,6 +270,24 @@ def handle_scripts(scripts):
         click.confirm(f"Are you sure you want to inject these scripts: {scripts_pretty}?", abort=True)
 
 
+class CliLaunchServer(Server):
+    """
+    the CLI runs a local web server, and needs to enable a few more features.
+    """
+    def __init__(self, matrix_data_cache_manager, annotations, app_config):
+        super().__init__(matrix_data_cache_manager, annotations, app_config)
+        self.app.config["COMPRESS_MIMETYPES"] = [
+            "text/html",
+            "text/css",
+            "text/xml",
+            "application/json",
+            "application/javascript",
+            "application/octet-stream",
+        ]
+        compress = Compress(self.app)
+        compress.init_app(self.app)
+
+
 @sort_options
 @click.command(
     short_help="Launch the cellxgene data viewer. " "Run `cellxgene launch --help` for more information.",
@@ -377,9 +397,7 @@ def launch(
     user_annotations = app_config.user_annotations
 
     # create the server
-    from server.app.app import Server
-
-    server = Server(matrix_data_cache_manager, user_annotations, app_config)
+    server = CliLaunchServer(matrix_data_cache_manager, user_annotations, app_config)
 
     if not app_config.server__verbose:
         log = logging.getLogger("werkzeug")
diff --git a/server/requirements.txt b/server/requirements.txt
index 69ea7553..a9713b22 100644
--- a/server/requirements.txt
+++ b/server/requirements.txt
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ anndata>=0.6.20
 click>=6.7
 fastobo>=0.6.1
 Flask>=1.0.2
-Flask-Caching>=1.4.0
 Flask-Compress>=1.4.0
 Flask-Cors>=3.0.6
 Flask-RESTful>=0.3.6