Monorepo Management

A monorepo is a single version-controlled repository that houses multiple packages or applications sharing common tooling, dependencies, and build infrastructure. Done well, a monorepo eliminates dependency drift between packages, enables atomic cross-package changes, and lets you run only the builds and tests affected by a given change. This skill covers workspace managers (pnpm, npm, yarn), task orchestrators (Turborepo, Nx), enterprise build systems (Bazel), internal package patterns, and shared tooling config.

When to use this skill

Trigger this skill when the user:

• Wants to set up a new monorepo or migrate from a multi-repo setup
• Asks how to configure Turborepo pipelines, caching, or remote caching
• Asks how to use Nx projects, affected commands, or the Nx task graph
• Needs to share TypeScript, ESLint, or Prettier configs across packages
• Asks about pnpm/npm/yarn workspace protocols and dependency hoisting
• Wants to implement internal packages with proper bundling and type exports
• Needs to choose between Turborepo, Nx, Bazel, or Lerna
• Asks about build caching, cache invalidation, or remote cache setup

Do NOT trigger this skill for:

• Single-package repository build tooling (Vite, webpack, esbuild) - use the frontend or backend skill
• Docker/container orchestration even when containers come from a monorepo

Key principles

1. Single source of truth - Each config (TypeScript base, ESLint rules, Prettier) lives in exactly one package and is extended everywhere else. Duplication is the root cause of config drift.

2. Explicit dependencies - Every package declares its workspace dependencies with workspace:*. Never rely on hoisting to make an undeclared dependency available at runtime.

3. Cache everything - Every deterministic task should be cached. Define precise inputs and outputs so the cache is never stale and never over-broad. Remote caching multiplies this benefit across CI and team.

4. Affected-only builds - On CI, build and test only the packages that changed (directly or transitively). Running the full build on every PR does not scale past ~20 packages.

5. Consistent tooling - Use the same package manager, Node version, and task runner across all packages. Mixed tooling creates invisible resolution differences and breaks cache hits.

Core concepts

Workspace protocols

Task graph

Turborepo and Nx model tasks as a DAG. A build task with dependsOn: ["^build"] means all dependency packages must complete their build before the current package starts. This replaces manual ordering scripts.

Remote caching

Remote caches (Vercel, Nx Cloud, S3/GCS) store task outputs keyed by a hash of inputs. Any machine with the same inputs gets a cache hit and downloads outputs instead of recomputing. This can reduce CI time by 80-90%.

Affected analysis

Given a diff from a base branch, affected analysis walks the dependency graph in reverse to find every package that transitively depends on a changed package. Turborepo: --filter=...[HEAD^1]. Nx: nx affected -t build.

Dependency topology

Packages form a partial order: leaf packages (utils, tokens) have no internal deps; feature packages depend on leaves; apps depend on features. Circular dependencies break the DAG and must be detected early.

Common tasks

1. Set up pnpm workspaces

pnpm-workspace.yaml:

packages:
  - "apps/*"
  - "packages/*"
  - "tooling/*"

Root package.json:

{
  "name": "my-monorepo",
  "private": true,
  "packageManager": "pnpm@9.4.0",
  "engines": { "node": ">=20.0.0", "pnpm": ">=9.0.0" },
  "scripts": {
    "build": "turbo run build",
    "dev": "turbo run dev --parallel",
    "lint": "turbo run lint",
    "test": "turbo run test"
  },
  "devDependencies": { "turbo": "^2.0.0" }
}

Referencing an internal package:

{ "dependencies": { "@myorg/tokens": "workspace:*" } }

2. Configure Turborepo

turbo.json:

{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "ui": "tui",
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "inputs": ["src/**", "tsconfig.json", "package.json"],
      "outputs": ["dist/**", ".next/**", "!.next/cache/**"]
    },
    "typecheck": { "dependsOn": ["^build"], "inputs": ["src/**", "tsconfig.json"] },
    "lint":      { "inputs": ["src/**", "eslint.config.js"] },
    "test":      { "dependsOn": ["^build"], "inputs": ["src/**", "tests/**"], "outputs": ["coverage/**"] },
    "dev":       { "cache": false, "persistent": true }
  }
}

Environment variable inputs (invalidate cache on env change):

{
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "env": ["NODE_ENV", "NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL"],
      "outputs": ["dist/**"]
    }
  }
}

Remote caching (Vercel) + affected CI runs:

npx turbo login && npx turbo link          # set up once
turbo run build --filter=...[origin/main]  # CI affected builds

3. Configure Nx

nx.json:

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/nx/schemas/nx-schema.json",
  "defaultBase": "main",
  "namedInputs": {
    "default":    ["{projectRoot}/**/*", "sharedGlobals"],
    "production": ["default", "!{projectRoot}/**/*.spec.*"],
    "sharedGlobals": ["{workspaceRoot}/tsconfig.base.json"]
  },
  "targetDefaults": {
    "build": { "dependsOn": ["^build"], "inputs": ["production", "^production"], "cache": true },
    "test":  { "inputs": ["default", "^production"], "cache": true },
    "lint":  { "inputs": ["default"], "cache": true }
  },
  "nxCloudAccessToken": "YOUR_NX_CLOUD_TOKEN"
}

Affected commands:

nx show projects --affected --base=main   # show affected projects
nx affected -t build                      # build only affected
nx affected -t test --parallel=4          # test in parallel
nx graph                                  # visualize dependency graph

4. Share TypeScript configs across packages

tooling/tsconfig/base.json:

{
  "$schema": "https://json.schemastore.org/tsconfig",
  "compilerOptions": {
    "strict": true,
    "exactOptionalPropertyTypes": true,
    "noUncheckedIndexedAccess": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "target": "ES2022",
    "lib": ["ES2022"],
    "module": "NodeNext",
    "moduleResolution": "NodeNext",
    "declaration": true,
    "declarationMap": true,
    "sourceMap": true
  }
}

Individual package tsconfig.json:

{
  "extends": "@myorg/tsconfig/base.json",
  "compilerOptions": { "outDir": "dist", "rootDir": "src" },
  "include": ["src"],
  "exclude": ["dist", "node_modules"]
}

5. Set up shared ESLint/Prettier configs

tooling/eslint-config/index.js (flat config, ESLint 9+):

import js from "@eslint/js";
import tseslint from "typescript-eslint";
import prettierConfig from "eslint-config-prettier";

export const base = [
  js.configs.recommended,
  ...tseslint.configs.recommendedTypeChecked,
  prettierConfig,
  {
    rules: {
      "@typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars": ["error", { argsIgnorePattern: "^_" }],
      "@typescript-eslint/consistent-type-imports": "error",
    },
  },
];

tooling/prettier-config/index.js:

/** @type {import("prettier").Config} */
export default { semi: true, singleQuote: false, trailingComma: "all", printWidth: 100 };

6. Implement internal packages (tsup)

packages/utils/package.json:

{
  "name": "@myorg/utils",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "type": "module",
  "exports": {
    ".": { "import": "./dist/index.js", "types": "./dist/index.d.ts" }
  },
  "scripts": { "build": "tsup", "dev": "tsup --watch" },
  "devDependencies": { "tsup": "^8.0.0" }
}

tsup.config.ts:

import { defineConfig } from "tsup";
export default defineConfig({
  entry: ["src/index.ts"],
  format: ["esm", "cjs"],
  dts: true,
  sourcemap: true,
  clean: true,
});

For packages consumed only within the repo (no publish), skip the build step entirely and use TypeScript path aliases in tsconfig.base.json:

{ "compilerOptions": { "paths": { "@myorg/utils": ["packages/utils/src/index.ts"] } } }

7. Choose Turborepo vs Nx vs Bazel

See references/tool-comparison.md for the full feature matrix.

Quick rule: Start with Turborepo. Upgrade to Nx when you need project generators, @nx/enforce-module-boundaries, or Nx Cloud DTE. Only adopt Bazel for a genuinely polyglot repo with build engineering capacity.

Anti-patterns / common mistakes

Gotchas

1. Turborepo cache poisoning from over-broad outputs - Setting "outputs": ["**"] in a task caches node_modules/, .git/, and generated files alongside build artifacts. A cache hit then restores stale node_modules from a previous run, causing dependency resolution bugs that are nearly impossible to trace. List only specific artifact directories: dist/**, .next/**, coverage/**.

2. workspace:* vs workspace:^ produce different lockfile behavior - workspace:* keeps the version as * in the lockfile and always resolves to whatever version the local package is at. workspace:^ pins a semver range at install time. Mixing both across packages in the same repo produces inconsistent resolution and breaks remote cache hits. Choose one convention and enforce it.

3. Missing "dependsOn": ["^build"] causes type errors in downstream packages - Without this directive, Turborepo may start building a consumer package before its dependency has emitted its dist/ output and type declarations. TypeScript errors like Cannot find module '@myorg/utils' are the symptom. Always declare ^build dependsOn for any task that produces files consumed by other packages.

4. Nx affected commands use defaultBase which defaults to main but CI often checks out a detached HEAD - nx affected computes affected projects by diffing against defaultBase. In a GitHub Actions PR workflow with actions/checkout@v4, the base branch is not fetched by default. Add fetch-depth: 0 to the checkout step and set --base=origin/main explicitly, or nx affected will compare against nothing and rebuild everything.

5. Circular workspace dependencies hang builds silently - A circular dependency between packages (A depends on B, B depends on A) breaks the task DAG and causes Turborepo or Nx to either deadlock or skip tasks without error messages. Run nx graph or madge --circular --extensions ts packages/ regularly to detect cycles before they cause build failures in CI.

References

• Turborepo docs
• Nx docs
• Bazel docs
• pnpm workspaces
• tsup
• changesets - versioning/publishing (Lerna replacement)
• references/tool-comparison.md - detailed Turborepo vs Nx vs Bazel vs Lerna comparison