Developer Essentials

Skill 56 of 183

Monorepo Management

Master monorepo management with Turborepo, Nx, and pnpm workspaces to build efficient, scalable multi-package repositories with optimized builds and dependency management.

1 minute · 271 words · 12 sections

Install

$ npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill monorepo-management

$ npx skills add wshobson/agents

» /plugin marketplace add wshobson/agents

The first command installs just this skill, by the name in its SKILL.md; the second installs the whole repository.

Build efficient, scalable monorepos that enable code sharing, consistent tooling, and atomic changes across multiple packages and applications.

When to Use This Skill

Setting up new monorepo projects
Migrating from multi-repo to monorepo
Optimizing build and test performance
Managing shared dependencies
Implementing code sharing strategies
Setting up CI/CD for monorepos
Versioning and publishing packages
Debugging monorepo-specific issues

Core Concepts

1. Why Monorepos?

Advantages:

Shared code and dependencies
Atomic commits across projects
Consistent tooling and standards
Easier refactoring
Simplified dependency management
Better code visibility

Challenges:

Build performance at scale
CI/CD complexity
Access control
Large Git repository

2. Monorepo Tools

Package Managers:

pnpm workspaces (recommended)
npm workspaces
Yarn workspaces

Build Systems:

Turborepo (recommended for most)
Nx (feature-rich, complex)
Lerna (older, maintenance mode)

Turborepo Setup

Initial Setup

# Create new monorepo
npx create-turbo@latest my-monorepo
cd my-monorepo

# Structure:
# apps/
#   web/          - Next.js app
#   docs/         - Documentation site
# packages/
#   ui/           - Shared UI components
#   config/       - Shared configurations
#   tsconfig/     - Shared TypeScript configs
# turbo.json      - Turborepo configuration
# package.json    - Root package.json

Configuration

// turbo.json
{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "globalDependencies": ["**/.env.*local"],
  "pipeline": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": ["dist/**", ".next/**", "!.next/cache/**"]
    },
    "test": {
      "dependsOn": ["build"],
      "outputs": ["coverage/**"]
    },
    "lint": {
      "outputs": []
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    },
    "type-check": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": []
    }
  }
}

// package.json (root)
{
  "name": "my-monorepo",
  "private": true,
  "workspaces": ["apps/*", "packages/*"],
  "scripts": {
    "build": "turbo run build",
    "dev": "turbo run dev",
    "test": "turbo run test",
    "lint": "turbo run lint",
    "format": "prettier --write \"**/*.{ts,tsx,md}\"",
    "clean": "turbo run clean && rm -rf node_modules"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "turbo": "^1.10.0",
    "prettier": "^3.0.0",
    "typescript": "^5.0.0"
  },
  "packageManager": "pnpm@8.0.0"
}

Package Structure

// packages/ui/package.json
{
  "name": "@repo/ui",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "main": "./dist/index.js",
  "types": "./dist/index.d.ts",
  "exports": {
    ".": {
      "import": "./dist/index.js",
      "types": "./dist/index.d.ts"
    },
    "./button": {
      "import": "./dist/button.js",
      "types": "./dist/button.d.ts"
    }
  },
  "scripts": {
    "build": "tsup src/index.ts --format esm,cjs --dts",
    "dev": "tsup src/index.ts --format esm,cjs --dts --watch",
    "lint": "eslint src/",
    "type-check": "tsc --noEmit"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@repo/tsconfig": "workspace:*",
    "tsup": "^7.0.0",
    "typescript": "^5.0.0"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "react": "^18.2.0"
  }
}

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Best Practices

Consistent Versioning: Lock dependency versions across workspace
Shared Configs: Centralize ESLint, TypeScript, Prettier configs
Dependency Graph: Keep it acyclic, avoid circular dependencies
Cache Effectively: Configure inputs/outputs correctly
Type Safety: Share types between frontend/backend
Testing Strategy: Unit tests in packages, E2E in apps
Documentation: README in each package
Release Strategy: Use changesets for versioning

Common Pitfalls

Circular Dependencies: A depends on B, B depends on A
Phantom Dependencies: Using deps not in package.json
Incorrect Cache Inputs: Missing files in Turborepo inputs
Over-Sharing: Sharing code that should be separate
Under-Sharing: Duplicating code across packages
Large Monorepos: Without proper tooling, builds slow down

Publishing Packages

# Using Changesets
pnpm add -Dw @changesets/cli
pnpm changeset init

# Create changeset
pnpm changeset

# Version packages
pnpm changeset version

# Publish
pnpm changeset publish

# .github/workflows/release.yml
- name: Create Release Pull Request or Publish
  uses: changesets/action@v1
  with:
    publish: pnpm release
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

About this skill

Trigger

Master monorepo management with Turborepo, Nx, and pnpm workspaces to build efficient, scalable multi-package repositories with optimized builds and dependency management. Use when setting up monorepos, optimizing builds, or managing shared dependencies.

The verbatim description from this skill’s front matter — the string an agent matches on to decide whether to load it.

Colophon for this issue

Colophon

How this issue was made

Source

github.com/wshobson/agents, branch main, last pushed 21 September 2026.

Licence

MIT — the text of every skill is reproduced unmodified, frontmatter included, under the upstream licence.

Discovery

183 skills found by walking the repository tree for SKILL.md, not by matching a directory convention. 51 distinct layouts observed: plugins/accessibility-compliance/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/agent-teams/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/api-scaffolding/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/avoid-ai-writing/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/backend-development/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/before-you-build/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/block-no-verify/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/blockchain-web3/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/brand-landingpage/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/business-analytics/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/cicd-automation/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/cloud-infrastructure/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/conductor/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/data-engineering/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/database-design/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/developer-essentials/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/dgx-spark-ops/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/documentation-generation/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/documentation-standards/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/dotnet-contribution/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/file-conversion/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/framework-migration/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/frontend-mobile-development/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/game-development/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/hermes-tweet/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/hr-legal-compliance/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/incident-response/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/javascript-typescript/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/kubernetes-operations/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/llm-application-dev/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/llm-finetuning/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/machine-learning-ops/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/observability-monitoring/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/payment-processing/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/plugin-eval/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/pptx-deck-creation/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/protect-mcp/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/python-development/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/quantitative-trading/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/reverse-engineering/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/review-agent-governance/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/security-scanning/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/shell-scripting/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/ship-mate/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/signed-audit-trails/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/skill-forge-essentials/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/social-publishing/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/startup-business-analyst/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/superself/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/systems-programming/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/ui-design/skills/*/SKILL.md.

Issue colours

Resolved from a deterministic hash of the owner name. Two accent tones are generated per issue and each is proven against its own ground before it ships: a single accent that passes AA on both light and dark paper is arithmetically impossible.

Heading repairs

1 repair applied to this skill so the document has one h1 and no skipped levels:

Removed “Monorepo Management”, a leading h1 that duplicated the skill title.

Spec compliance

Every skill satisfies the Agent Skills specification’s frontmatter rules.

Images

Images inside a skill come from the upstream repository. Where the author gave no alternative text we mark the image decorative rather than inventing a description — a plausible caption we made up is worse than none for the reader who depends on it.

Marketplace

A plugin manifest is published at .claude-plugin/marketplace.json by Seth Hobson, declaring 94 plugins. It is read for editorial metadata only — never as the skill index, which is always the repository tree.

Signal

Install counts come from skills.sh. They measure downloads, not quality, and an unranked repository is not an unread one.

Agent surfaces

The whole issue is available as one markdown document at /wshobson/agents.md, and each skill at its own .md URL.

Publication

Set by Skills Docs from the source repository. Body text is Literata at the reader’s chosen size and measure; code is Geist Mono. Nothing on this page was written by us except this paragraph.

Build efficient, scalable monorepos that enable code sharing, consistent tooling, and atomic changes across multiple packages and applications.

When to Use This Skill

Setting up new monorepo projects
Migrating from multi-repo to monorepo
Optimizing build and test performance
Managing shared dependencies
Implementing code sharing strategies
Setting up CI/CD for monorepos
Versioning and publishing packages
Debugging monorepo-specific issues

Core Concepts

1. Why Monorepos?

Advantages:

Shared code and dependencies
Atomic commits across projects
Consistent tooling and standards
Easier refactoring
Simplified dependency management
Better code visibility

Challenges:

Build performance at scale
CI/CD complexity
Access control
Large Git repository

2. Monorepo Tools

Package Managers:

pnpm workspaces (recommended)
npm workspaces
Yarn workspaces

Build Systems:

Turborepo (recommended for most)
Nx (feature-rich, complex)
Lerna (older, maintenance mode)

Turborepo Setup

Initial Setup

# Create new monorepo
npx create-turbo@latest my-monorepo
cd my-monorepo

# Structure:
# apps/
#   web/          - Next.js app
#   docs/         - Documentation site
# packages/
#   ui/           - Shared UI components
#   config/       - Shared configurations
#   tsconfig/     - Shared TypeScript configs
# turbo.json      - Turborepo configuration
# package.json    - Root package.json

Configuration

// turbo.json
{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "globalDependencies": ["**/.env.*local"],
  "pipeline": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": ["dist/**", ".next/**", "!.next/cache/**"]
    },
    "test": {
      "dependsOn": ["build"],
      "outputs": ["coverage/**"]
    },
    "lint": {
      "outputs": []
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    },
    "type-check": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": []
    }
  }
}

// package.json (root)
{
  "name": "my-monorepo",
  "private": true,
  "workspaces": ["apps/*", "packages/*"],
  "scripts": {
    "build": "turbo run build",
    "dev": "turbo run dev",
    "test": "turbo run test",
    "lint": "turbo run lint",
    "format": "prettier --write \"**/*.{ts,tsx,md}\"",
    "clean": "turbo run clean && rm -rf node_modules"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "turbo": "^1.10.0",
    "prettier": "^3.0.0",
    "typescript": "^5.0.0"
  },
  "packageManager": "pnpm@8.0.0"
}

Package Structure

// packages/ui/package.json
{
  "name": "@repo/ui",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "main": "./dist/index.js",
  "types": "./dist/index.d.ts",
  "exports": {
    ".": {
      "import": "./dist/index.js",
      "types": "./dist/index.d.ts"
    },
    "./button": {
      "import": "./dist/button.js",
      "types": "./dist/button.d.ts"
    }
  },
  "scripts": {
    "build": "tsup src/index.ts --format esm,cjs --dts",
    "dev": "tsup src/index.ts --format esm,cjs --dts --watch",
    "lint": "eslint src/",
    "type-check": "tsc --noEmit"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@repo/tsconfig": "workspace:*",
    "tsup": "^7.0.0",
    "typescript": "^5.0.0"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "react": "^18.2.0"
  }
}

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Best Practices

Consistent Versioning: Lock dependency versions across workspace
Shared Configs: Centralize ESLint, TypeScript, Prettier configs
Dependency Graph: Keep it acyclic, avoid circular dependencies
Cache Effectively: Configure inputs/outputs correctly
Type Safety: Share types between frontend/backend
Testing Strategy: Unit tests in packages, E2E in apps
Documentation: README in each package
Release Strategy: Use changesets for versioning

Common Pitfalls

Circular Dependencies: A depends on B, B depends on A
Phantom Dependencies: Using deps not in package.json
Incorrect Cache Inputs: Missing files in Turborepo inputs
Over-Sharing: Sharing code that should be separate
Under-Sharing: Duplicating code across packages
Large Monorepos: Without proper tooling, builds slow down

Publishing Packages

# Using Changesets
pnpm add -Dw @changesets/cli
pnpm changeset init

# Create changeset
pnpm changeset

# Version packages
pnpm changeset version

# Publish
pnpm changeset publish

# .github/workflows/release.yml
- name: Create Release Pull Request or Publish
  uses: changesets/action@v1
  with:
    publish: pnpm release
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

Monorepo Management

When to Use This Skill

Core Concepts

1. Why Monorepos?

2. Monorepo Tools

Turborepo Setup

Initial Setup

Configuration

Package Structure

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Best Practices

Common Pitfalls

Publishing Packages

About this skill

Trigger

Colophon

Monorepo Management

When to Use This Skill

Core Concepts

1. Why Monorepos?

2. Monorepo Tools

Turborepo Setup

Initial Setup

Configuration

Package Structure

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Best Practices

Common Pitfalls

Publishing Packages

Appendix 56.1

ReferencesMarkdown · 1 file

About this skill

Trigger

Colophon

Appendix 56.1

ReferencesMarkdown · 1 file