Setting Up Monorepos with TurboRepo for Scalable Projects

Setting Up Monorepos with TurboRepo for Scalable Projects

As modern applications become more complex, developers are increasingly managing multiple packages, libraries, and services within a single codebase. This architecture, known as a monorepo, brings significant advantages to projects that need consistency, shared tooling, and coordinated versioning. But without the right tools, managing monorepos can become slow and unwieldy.

TurboRepo, developed by Vercel, is a high-performance build system designed specifically for JavaScript and TypeScript monorepos. It enables fast builds, smart caching, and efficient task scheduling , making it easier to manage growing codebases without compromising developer experience.

This guide walks you through the process of setting up a monorepo with TurboRepo, including structure, configuration, and real-world use cases.

What Is a Monorepo?

A monorepo (short for monolithic repository) is a single repository that contains multiple projects or packages. Instead of separating frontend, backend, and shared utilities into different repositories, you group them under a unified structure. This setup is especially useful for:

• Design systems shared across apps
• Reusable components or services
• Full-stack apps with frontend and backend in one repo
• Managing versions and dependencies centrally

Monorepos foster better collaboration between teams, reduce version mismatch issues, and simplify CI/CD pipelines. But they can also slow down builds and become difficult to manage , unless supported by a smart build tool like TurboRepo.

Why TurboRepo?

TurboRepo introduces a number of optimizations designed to address monorepo complexity:

• Incremental builds: Only rebuild what has changed, using smart dependency tracking
• Remote caching: Share build caches across developers and CI environments
• Parallel execution: Run tasks in parallel to reduce build time
• Zero-config setup: Uses sensible defaults, but supports customization
• Framework support: Works with Next.js, Vite, React, and more

Together, these features make TurboRepo a production-ready solution for managing codebases of all sizes.

Project Structure

Here’s a typical monorepo layout using TurboRepo:

my-monorepo/
├── apps/
│   ├── web/        # frontend app (e.g., Next.js)
│   └── api/        # backend service (e.g., Express or tRPC)
├── packages/
│   ├── ui/         # shared UI components
│   └── config/     # shared ESLint/TS config
├── turbo.json      # TurboRepo config file
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

This structure separates “apps” (runnable projects) from “packages” (reusable libraries). TurboRepo allows you to define how tasks are run across them.

Getting Started

1. Install Turbo globally

npm install -g turbo

Or add it to your project:

npm install --save-dev turbo

2. Create turbo.json

{
  "$schema": "https://turborepo.org/schema.json",
  "pipeline": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": ["dist/**"]
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false
    },
    "lint": {},
    "test": {}
  }
}

This file defines how tasks (like build, dev, or test) should be handled. The "dependsOn" field ensures that dependencies are built in the correct order.

Running Commands

Use turbo run to execute tasks across your repo:

turbo run build

This will build all packages and apps that define a build script in their package.json, and only re-run builds for those that have changed since the last run.

You can also run specific tasks:

turbo run lint --filter=packages/ui

This targets a single package, saving time and resources.

Remote Caching (Optional)

You can connect TurboRepo to Vercel Remote Caching, which allows your build cache to be shared across team members and CI pipelines.

To enable it:

1. Sign in to vercel.com
2. Run:

npx turbo login
npx turbo link

3. Turbo will prompt you to link the monorepo to a Vercel project. After that, your builds will become significantly faster on any machine or CI system that shares the cache.

Conclusion

TurboRepo takes the complexity out of managing monorepos, especially for modern JavaScript and TypeScript projects. It speeds up your builds, encourages better project structure, and enhances team productivity. Whether you’re working on a full-stack application or building a scalable library ecosystem, TurboRepo offers the performance and flexibility needed to keep your workflow efficient and maintainable.

Disclaimer

Article written with the help of AI.

Read the full Disclaimer HERE