diff --git a/app/Console/Commands/Optimize.php b/app/Console/Commands/Optimize.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a1505ecea0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/Console/Commands/Optimize.php
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace App\Console\Commands;
+
+use Illuminate\Contracts\Container\BindingResolutionException;
+use Illuminate\Foundation\Console\OptimizeCommand;
+use Psr\Container\ContainerExceptionInterface;
+use Psr\Container\NotFoundExceptionInterface;
+use function Safe\sprintf;
+use Symfony\Component\Console\Exception\ExceptionInterface as ConsoleException;
+use Symfony\Component\Console\Exception\InvalidOptionException;
+
+/**
+ * Improves the original "optimize" command provided by the framework.
+ *
+ * There are three improvements:
+ *
+ *  1) This command explicitly clears the old cache before building a new one.
+ *     Note that rebuilding a new cache is not sufficient, because this
+ *     does *not* overwrite the entire cache but some leftovers may remain.
+ *     This actually looks like an oversight and bug in the original command.
+ *  2) This command adds a "clever" mode which only rebuilds a new cache if
+ *     a previous cache has existed.
+ *     We use this in our install/update scripts in order to rebuild the cache
+ *     after installation/update without enforcing to use a cache for everyone.
+ *  3) This command adds a confirmation, if the user requests to build a cache
+ *     for non-productive environments as this is most likely an error and
+ *     undesired.
+ *     The confirmation can be skipped by pre-selecting the answer via a
+ *     command line option.
+ */
+class Optimize extends OptimizeCommand
+{
+	/**
+	 * The name and signature of the console command.
+	 *
+	 * @var string
+	 */
+	protected $signature = 'optimize
+		{--clever : Only (re-)creates cache if cache has already been created before and if not in production mode}
+		{--dont-confirm= : [assume-yes|assume-no] Don\'t ask for confirmation, but silently assume yes or no; "assume-yes" yields same behaviour as the original Laravel command}';
+
+	/**
+	 * Execute the console command.
+	 *
+	 * @return void
+	 *
+	 * @throws ConsoleException
+	 * @throws BindingResolutionException
+	 * @throws NotFoundExceptionInterface
+	 * @throws ContainerExceptionInterface
+	 */
+	public function handle(): void
+	{
+		$shallBeClever = $this->hasOption('clever') && $this->option('clever') === true;
+		$confirmationDefault = match ($this->option('dont-confirm')) {
+			'assume-yes' => true,
+			'assume-no' => false,
+			null => null,
+			default => throw new InvalidOptionException(sprintf('Unexpected option value %s for --dont-confirm', $this->option('dont-confirm')))
+		};
+		$hasPreviousCache = file_exists($this->laravel->getCachedConfigPath()) || file_exists($this->laravel->getCachedRoutesPath());
+
+		$this->call('optimize:clear');
+
+		if ($shallBeClever && !$hasPreviousCache) {
+			return;
+		}
+
+		if ($this->isNonProductive()) {
+			$this->alert('Application not in Production!');
+
+			$hasConfirmed = $confirmationDefault ?? $this->confirm('Do you really wish to run this command?');
+
+			if (!$hasConfirmed) {
+				$this->comment('Command Canceled!');
+
+				return;
+			}
+		}
+
+		parent::handle();
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Checks whether Lychee is running in a non-production environment.
+	 *
+	 * Note, this method deliberately tends to `true` in case of doubt.
+	 * This means if anything indicates that the setup might be used for
+	 * developing or testing purposes, the result is `true`.
+	 * Such indicators are the environment setting, enabled debug mode or
+	 * debug bar, installed PhpUnit or PhpStan.
+	 * If we are not in production mode, this command asks for confirmation,
+	 * and we rather ask one time too often than not.
+	 *
+	 * @return bool `true`, if Lychee is found to run in non-production mode
+	 *
+	 * @throws BindingResolutionException
+	 * @throws NotFoundExceptionInterface
+	 * @throws ContainerExceptionInterface
+	 */
+	protected function isNonProductive(): bool
+	{
+		return
+			'production' !== $this->getLaravel()->environment() ||
+			true === config('app.debug', false) ||
+			true === config('debugbar.enabled', false) ||
+			file_exists(base_path('vendor/bin/phpunit')) ||
+			file_exists(base_path('vendor/bin/phpstan')) ||
+			file_exists(base_path('vendor/bin/phpstan.phar'));
+	}
+}
diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index ff309d9b403..14ff3c7ea01 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@
         ],
         "post-autoload-dump": [
             "Illuminate\\Foundation\\ComposerScripts::postAutoloadDump",
+            "@php artisan optimize --clever --dont-confirm=assume-no",
             "@php artisan package:discover",
             "@install_files"
         ],
diff --git a/scripts/post-merge b/scripts/post-merge
index c91f2a90d8b..e4a84fd3d08 100755
--- a/scripts/post-merge
+++ b/scripts/post-merge
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ else
         composer install --no-dev --prefer-dist
     fi
     if [ -f ".env" ]; then
+        echo "php artisan optimize --clever --dont-confirm=assume-no"
+        php artisan optimize --clever --dont-confirm=assume-no
         echo "php artisan migrate --force"
         php artisan migrate --force
     fi