Simplifying Code Management with Monorepo

First of all, what is monorepo? What is it used for? And how to use it? I gonna try to answer all these questions in this post.

What is a monorepo?

Basically, monorepo is a version control strategy where you can store code from projects with a strong relationship between them in a single repository. For example, if you have a full-stack application, and you probably have your frontend, backend, and maybe also a mobile project that is part of your solution. A monorepo would hold all these projects inside a single repository. But what are the benefits of using a monorepo after all?

Image: https://monorepo.tools/#what-is-a-monorepo

There needs to be more clarity about what, in fact, is a monorepo. As said before, monorepo holds distinct parts of your solution, and they share a well-defined relationship, even components that can be shared between these projects. Let’s pinpoint a few benefits of having a monorepo.

The benefits

A single version of each component

With monorepo, developers can maintain a single version of each shared component, easily keeping track of component versions and distributing them between the projects. Monorepo allows for better version management of the codebase, making it easier to track and manage changes, and to ensure that different parts of the codebase are compatible with one another.

Code sharing and collaboration

When we have all of the code in one place, it's easier for developers like you and me to share and collaborate on code, and it's also easier to ensure that different parts of the codebase are compatible with one another. And you might be wondering, why it is easier to ensure that? It’s because all of the code is in one place and developers can more easily see how different parts of the codebase depend on each other.

Cross-dependency management

Monorepo allows for better management of dependencies between different parts of the codebase, making it easier to manage and maintain the codebase. In other words, it's about making sure that different modules, libraries, or components in a codebase work together seamlessly. The cross-dependency management can be a hard task on large codebases, and the monorepo strategy can help to simplify this by keeping all of the code for a project or organization in a single repository.

Development, testing, and deployment simplified

In fact, developers can speed up the development process if they have a clear understanding of where each part of the project is, and how to use and maintain them, and this even makes it possible for other teams to help build and maintain new features for specific parts of the project. Additionally, using a monorepo can make it easier to automate tasks like testing and deployment, as all necessary code is located in one place.

So, what it is used for, after all?

Monorepo is used and is great for many different types of development:

• Web and mobile development
• Backend and frontend development
• Infrastructure as a Code
• Machine Learning and Data Science
• Embedded systems

Also, it might be great for a few use-cases, like:

• Large, complex codebases that are difficult to manage with multiple repositories
• Organizations that have multiple teams working on different projects, but with shared dependencies
• Automating the build, test, and deployment processes
• Improving collaboration between teams
• Keeping track of the entire company's codebase

Here a few tips for who is studying monorepos:

1. Start by understanding the basic concepts: Before diving into the implementation of a monorepo, it's important to understand the basic concepts, such as the benefits and trade-offs of using a monorepo, as well as the different tools and strategies that can be used to manage a monorepo.
2. Get hands-on experience: Practice is key to understanding how monorepos work in practice. Try setting up a monorepo for a small personal project, or work on an open-source project that uses a monorepo. This will give you a better understanding of how to manage and work with a monorepo.
3. Experiment with a small project: Try setting up a small JavaScript project using a monorepo tool, like Lerna or Yarn Workspaces. This will give you hands-on experience working with monorepos and will help you understand how to manage and work with code in a monorepo.
4. Study best practices: Learn from others who have experience working with monorepos. Read case studies and best practices from companies that have successfully implemented monorepos. This will give you a better understanding of what works and what doesn't when it comes to monorepos.
5. Join a community: Monorepos are becoming more popular, and there are many communities, forums, and groups dedicated to discussing monorepos and sharing tips and best practices. Joining these communities can be a great way to connect with others who are also studying monorepos, and to get answers to any questions you may have.
6. Learn the trade-offs: Monorepos are not a silver bullet and have some trade-offs like longer build and test time and difficulties in scaling. Understand the trade-offs and when to use monorepos and when not.
7. Learn about related technologies: Monorepo is not the only way to manage dependencies in javascript, Learn about other technologies like npm, yarn, webpack, and related concepts like dependency management, packaging, and building.

By following these tips, you'll be well on your way to understanding and working with monorepos in your development projects.

Take your first hands-On

A good example of a Lerna monorepo project is the "lerna-demo" repository on GitHub. This project demonstrates how to use Lerna to manage a monorepo with multiple npm packages. The repository includes a couple of example packages, and shows how to use Lerna to manage dependencies, versioning, and publishing packages to npm.

You can find the "getting-started-example" repository here: https://github.com/lerna/getting-started-example
This can be a good starting point to understand the basic functionality of Lerna and how to use it in your own project.

Important to understand when not to use

Overall, a monorepo can help to improve the organization and efficiency of a development team by making it easier to manage and share code, and also make it easier to keep track of the entire codebase. So will be scenarios that monorepo can effectively help your team / organization, and scenarios that it will not be necessary like:

• Small projects with just one or a few developers and no cross-dependency between different parts of the project. A single repository for a simple project may be overkill.
• Projects with different ownership or security requirements. So, the codebase is not available for all teams or developers.
• Projects with different languages, or different build systems.
• Monorepos can be hard to scale when the projects are owned by different teams with different release cycles as well.

It's very important to evaluate the specific needs of your project or organization before deciding whether or not to use a monorepo. If it is not the best option for your specific use case, it's better to consider other alternatives.