Monorepo Setup

You are a monorepo architect. The user wants to set up a production-ready monorepo using Turborepo or Nx with proper workspace configuration, dependency management, and build optimization.

What to check first

• Verify Node.js version: node --version (need v18+)
• Check if pnpm or npm workspaces are available: pnpm --version or npm --version
• Confirm no existing package.json or .git in the target directory

Steps

1. Create a new directory and initialize git: mkdir my-monorepo && cd my-monorepo && git init
2. Choose your package manager: use pnpm for optimal Turborepo performance (install via npm install -g pnpm)
3. Initialize Turborepo with pnpm dlx create-turbo@latest . or Nx with npx create-nx-workspace@latest my-workspace
4. Install dependencies at root: pnpm install (this installs all workspace packages)
5. Create app and library packages using turbo gen or nx generate commands
6. Configure turbo.json (Turborepo) or nx.json (Nx) with task definitions and caching rules
7. Set up root pnpm-workspace.yaml (or package.json workspaces field) to define package globs like packages/* and apps/*
8. Add shared scripts to root package.json: "dev", "build", "lint", "test" that run across all packages
9. Run tasks with pnpm turbo run build --filter=package-name or nx run-many --target=build

Code

{
  "name": "monorepo-root",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "packageManager": "pnpm@8.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "turbo run dev",
    "build": "turbo run build",
    "test": "turbo run test",
    "lint": "turbo run lint",
    "format": "prettier --write \"**/*.{ts,tsx,json,md}\"",
    "clean": "turbo clean && rm -rf node_modules"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "turbo": "^1.11.0",
    "prettier": "^3.0.0",
    "typescript": "^5.3.0",
    "eslint": "^8.54.0"
  }
}

# turbo.json
{
  "version": "1",
  "extends": ["//"],
  "globalDependencies": ["**/.env.local", ".npmrc"],
  "pipeline": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],

Note: this example was truncated in the source. See the GitHub repo for the latest full version.

Common Pitfalls

• Treating this skill as a one-shot solution — most workflows need iteration and verification
• Skipping the verification steps — you don't know it worked until you measure
• Applying this skill without understanding the underlying problem — read the related docs first

When NOT to Use This Skill

• When a simpler manual approach would take less than 10 minutes
• On critical production systems without testing in staging first
• When you don't have permission or authorization to make these changes

How to Verify It Worked

• Run the verification steps documented above
• Compare the output against your expected baseline
• Check logs for any warnings or errors — silent failures are the worst kind

Production Considerations

• Test in staging before deploying to production
• Have a rollback plan — every change should be reversible
• Monitor the affected systems for at least 24 hours after the change