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Show Notes
Introduction
Goal: Set the stage and explain why monorepos are relevant in modern development.
- What is a monorepo?
- Single repository that houses the code of multiple (usually intervening” projects
- Polyrepo is the opposite where each project has it’s own repository
- Why are developers increasingly adopting monorepos?
- With the rise of full-stack development and microservices monorepos have become more and more relevant
- Monorepo DX has also gotten significantly better over the years with tools like pnpm, turbopack, nx
- Your personal context: Using TurboRepo at work and your curiosity to explore its benefits and challenges.
- We took the dive into a monorepo at my current workplace because we kept developing web apps and wanted a central UI library that’s easily shared between them
- This evolved into shared utilities, database abstractions, image creation, etc
- Tease the key points you’ll cover: "We’ll dive into the perks, the pitfalls, and how TurboRepo fits into the picture."
The Case for Monorepos: Why Teams Love Them
Goal: Highlight the advantages, citing examples and your TurboRepo experience.
- Simplified Dependency Management:
- How shared dependencies and tools are easier to manage in a monorepo.
- Personal example: A situation where this saved time or reduced errors.
- Code Sharing and Reusability:
- How monorepos promote better modularity and DRY principles.
- Easily share UI libs without having to publish a package to npm for example
- Example: Reusing components or utilities across multiple projects effortlessly.
- Consistency Across Teams:
- Uniform tooling, linting, and formatting.
- One config to rule them all
- The role of TurboRepo in setting up consistent workflows.
- Improved Collaboration:
- Everyone works in the same ecosystem, making cross-team collaboration smoother.
- CI/CD Streamlining:
- TurboRepo-specific example: Faster builds through caching and efficient pipelines.
The Challenges of Monorepos: What to Watch Out For
Goal: Discuss the downsides and how they might affect teams.
- Scaling Issues:
- Large monorepos can become unwieldy; build times, search, and navigation can slow down.
- Your TurboRepo experience: Does caching mitigate this for you?
- Overhead of Tooling:
- Need for robust tools like TurboRepo, Nx, or Bazel to manage the complexities.
- Example of any setup frustrations or ongoing maintenance struggles.
- Access Control Challenges:
- When certain teams only need access to part of the monorepo.
- How (or if) TurboRepo addresses this.
- Risk of Entanglement:
- Breaking changes can ripple across the entire repo, affecting unrelated projects.
- Anecdote: A time when a dependency update caused unforeseen issues.
Deep Dive into TurboRepo
Goal: Share your first-hand experience with TurboRepo.
- What Sets TurboRepo Apart:
- It’s integration into vercel which is the current hosting provider we are using
- It’s ability to cache builds to make them faster
- Although this has caused more headaches then it’s solved and mostly been turned off in our use case
- The TurboRepo Workflow:
- All apps under the /apps folder, all libraries under the /lib folder
- Differences between app and lib are that apps are the ones being deployed and libs are used by the apps
- Each app has it’s own dependencies and scripts that you can run to launch the dev server, update db, run tests, etc
- There are commands to run all apps but are rarely used due to the overhead
- Any shared UI component will go into a lib package called UI and can be imported into any app
- All prisma clients are also shared inside lib can be used interchangeably in any app
- Sharing code between apps is extremely easy with this and also keeping typesaftey is a top notch experience
- There is a bash script to help with limiting the apps that run a vercel deployment so that we have faster staging branch deployments
- Pros and Cons:
- Pros
- Really good for collaboration
- Easy to share code
- Type Safety
- Ease of deployment
- Cons
- Can be complex to onboard
- Caching doesn’t work very well and caused some deployment headaches (even in prod)
- Has some git management complexities due to many devs working on one repo in completely different projects
Alternatives and When Monorepos Might Not Be the Best Fit
Goal: Acknowledge other perspectives and tools.
- When Polyrepos Shine:
- Smaller teams, projects with minimal overlap, or scenarios where access control is critical.
- Alternatives to TurboRepo:
- Quick mentions of Nx, Bazel, or Lerna.
- Hybrid Approaches:
- Some teams use both monorepos and polyrepos for specific needs.
Wrap-Up and Final Thoughts
Goal: Summarize key insights and encourage engagement.
- Recap:
- The biggest benefits (e.g., collaboration, code sharing).
- The challenges (e.g., scaling, setup complexity).
- TurboRepo’s role and your personal takeaway.
- Your Verdict:
- Are monorepos worth it for most teams?
- Would you recommend TurboRepo?
- Call to Action:
- Ask listeners to share their own experiences with monorepos and TurboRepo.
- Mention any related topics you could cover in future episodes (e.g., deep dives into CI/CD for monorepos, Nx vs. TurboRepo).
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