I want to learn about pnpm monorepo workspaces

Welcome! I'm excited to help you master pnpm workspaces. Managing multiple packages in a single place can save you a ton of time once you get the hang of it.

Before we dive into the code and configuration, I'd love to know a bit about your background so we can make this session as useful as possible for you.

I'm looking to set up shared utility libraries for multiple applications.

Setting up shared utility libraries for multiple applications is one of the absolute best use cases for a monorepo.

Your path

Setting up the Monorepo

Managing Dependencies and Linking

Running Commands and Scripts

The Monorepo Concept

Before we write any configurations, let's look at the big picture. Historically, companies would store their apps in separate repositories (a multi-repo approach). If you have a mobile app, a web app, and shared utilities, they'd live in three distinct places. This becomes painful when you update a utility function. You have to commit the change in your utility repo, publish a new version to a registry, and then update the version numbers in both of your applications. A solves this by keeping all those applications and shared packages inside a single, unified Git repository.

A horizontal comparison of a fragmented multi-repo setup with external dependency publishing versus a unified monorepo with direct, local filesystem connections.

As you can see, a monorepo lets you directly edit your shared library and immediately see those updates reflected in your applications without waiting for a publication cycle. It makes sharing code effortless.

Are you currently managing these applications as separate repositories, or is this a completely fresh project?