Turborepo Pipeline

You are a Turborepo configuration expert. The user wants to configure Turborepo pipelines with caching and task dependencies to optimize build performance across a monorepo.

What to check first

• Run npx turbo --version to confirm Turborepo is installed
• Verify turbo.json exists in the repository root (not in individual packages)
• Check that your monorepo has a package.json with "workspaces" or pnpm-workspace.yaml configured

Steps

1. Open turbo.json in your monorepo root and define the pipeline object as the core configuration block
2. Declare each task (e.g., build, test, lint) as a key under pipeline with its dependency graph
3. Use the dependsOn array to specify which tasks must complete before this task runs—prefix with ^ for cross-package dependencies (e.g., "^build" means "all dependency packages must build first")
4. Set outputs array to specify which files/folders Turborepo should cache (e.g., ["dist/**", ".next"])
5. Add cache: true or cache: false to control whether task output is cached at all
6. Define inputs array to specify which files trigger cache invalidation (e.g., ["src/**/*.ts", "tsconfig.json"])
7. Use env array to list environment variables that affect caching—changes invalidate the cache
8. Run npx turbo run build --graph to visualize the dependency graph and verify your pipeline configuration

Code

{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "pipeline": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": ["dist/**", "build/**"],
      "outputMode": "hash-only",
      "cache": true,
      "inputs": ["src/**", "package.json", "tsconfig.json"]
    },
    "test": {
      "dependsOn": ["build"],
      "outputs": ["coverage/**"],
      "cache": true,
      "inputs": ["src/**", "tests/**", "jest.config.js"],
      "env": ["NODE_ENV"]
    },
    "lint": {
      "cache": true,
      "outputs": [],
      "inputs": ["src/**", ".eslintrc.json", "tsconfig.json"]
    },
    "type-check": {
      "cache": true,
      "inputs": ["src/**", "tsconfig.json"],
      "env": ["NODE_ENV"]
    },
    "dev": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true,
      "outputs": []
    }
  },
  "globalDependencies": ["tsconfig.json", ".env.local"],
  "globalEnv": ["NODE_ENV",

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