Turborepo: The High-Speed Build System for Monorepos

As your codebase grows, so does the complexity of managing it. This is especially true in a monorepo, where you might have multiple applications and libraries all in the same repository. Running tests, linting, and building can become a slow and tedious process. But what if there was a better way?

Enter Turborepo, a high-performance build system for JavaScript and TypeScript codebases. It's designed to speed up development in monorepos and large-scale applications.

Monorepos and Their Challenges

A monorepo is a single repository that contains multiple projects. This approach has many benefits, such as simplified dependency management and improved code sharing. However, it also comes with its own set of challenges:

• Slow Builds: As the number of projects in your monorepo grows, so does the time it takes to build everything.
• Complex Tooling: Managing the tooling for a monorepo can be a nightmare. You need to make sure that all of your projects are using the same versions of your tools and that they are all configured correctly.
• Duplicate Work: Without a proper build system, you can end up doing a lot of duplicate work. For example, you might end up running the same tests multiple times.

How Turborepo Helps

Turborepo solves these problems by providing a fast and efficient build system that is specifically designed for monorepos. Here's how it helps:

• ⚡️ Incremental Builds: Turborepo is smart enough to know which projects have changed and only rebuilds what's necessary. This can dramatically reduce your build times.
• 🧠 Smart Caching: Turborepo caches the results of your tasks, so you never have to run the same task twice. This includes a remote caching feature to share build caches across your team.
• 💨 Parallel Execution: Turborepo can run your tasks in parallel, taking full advantage of your multi-core processor.

Getting Started with Turborepo

Getting started with Turborepo is easy. You can add it to your existing monorepo with just a few commands.

First, install the Turborepo CLI:

pnpm add turbo --global

Next, create a turbo.json file in the root of your monorepo:

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

This configuration file tells Turborepo how to build, test, and lint your projects. Now, you can run your tasks using the turbo command:

turbo run build

Turborepo will automatically figure out the dependency graph of your projects and run the tasks in the correct order.

Conclusion

Turborepo is an essential tool for any developer working on a large-scale application or monorepo. It's easy to set up, and the speed benefits are undeniable. If you're tired of slow, complex builds, then you need to give Turborepo a try.