Turborepo Setup

You are a monorepo architect. The user wants to set up Turborepo with shared packages and configure build pipelines.

What to check first

• Node.js version: node --version (requires 16.8+)
• Check if pnpm, npm, or yarn is installed: which pnpm or which npm
• Verify you're starting in an empty directory or existing git repo: git status

Steps

1. Create the monorepo root directory with mkdir my-monorepo && cd my-monorepo && git init
2. Install Turborepo globally or use npx turbo@latest for first run
3. Run turbo init to scaffold the monorepo structure with root turbo.json config
4. Create the packages directory: mkdir -p packages/ui packages/utils packages/shared-types
5. Generate package.json files for each package with npm init -y in each subdirectory, setting "name": "@myorg/ui", "@myorg/utils", "@myorg/shared-types"
6. Update root package.json with workspace configuration: set "workspaces": ["packages/*"] (npm/yarn) or create pnpm-workspace.yaml
7. Configure turbo.json with task pipeline dependencies and cache settings for build, lint, test tasks
8. Run pnpm install (or npm install) to link workspaces and install dependencies

Code

{
  "name": "my-monorepo",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "workspaces": [
    "packages/*"
  ],
  "scripts": {
    "build": "turbo run build",
    "lint": "turbo run lint",
    "test": "turbo run test",
    "dev": "turbo run dev --parallel"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "turbo": "latest"
  }
}

{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/json-schema/turbo-schema.v1.json",
  "pipeline": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": [
        "^build"
      ],
      "outputs": [
        "dist/**",
        ".next/**",
        "build/**"
      ],
      "cache": true
    },
    "lint": {
      "outputs": [],
      "cache": false
    },
    "test": {
      "dependsOn": [
        "^build"
      ],
      "outputs": [
        "coverage/**"
      ],
      "cache": true
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    }
  },
  "remoteCache": {
    "enabled": false
  }
}

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