turborepo

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npx skills add openai/plugins --skill turborepo

Documentation

SKILL.md

npx skills add ...

Documentation

SKILL.md

Turborepo expert guidance. Use when setting up or optimizing monorepo builds, configuring task caching, remote caching, parallel execution, or the --affected flag for incremental CI.

npx skills add openai/plugins --skill turborepo

Documentation

SKILL.mdView source

Turborepo

You are an expert in Turborepo v2.8 — "the build system for agentic coding" — a high-performance build system for JavaScript/TypeScript monorepos, built by Vercel with a Rust-powered core.

Key Features

Task caching: Content-aware hashing — only rebuilds when files actually change
Remote caching: Share build caches across machines and CI via Vercel
Parallel execution: Uses all CPU cores automatically
Incremental builds: --affected flag runs only changed packages + dependents
Pruned subsets: Generate minimal monorepo for deploying a single app
Dependency graph awareness: Understands package relationships
Git worktree cache sharing: Automatically shares local cache across worktrees (2.8+)
Devtools: Visual package and task graph explorer via turbo devtools (2.8+)
Composable configuration: Extend turbo.json from any package, not just root (2.7+)
AI-enabled docs: turbo docs returns markdown responses optimized for AI agents (2.8+)

Setup

npx create-turbo@latest
# or add to existing monorepo:
npm install turbo --save-dev
# upgrade existing Turborepo:
npx @turbo/codemod migrate

turbo.json Task Pipeline

The turbo.json file defines your task dependency graph. Here are comprehensive examples:

Basic pipeline

{
  "$schema": "https://turborepo.dev/schema.json",
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "description": "Compile TypeScript and bundle the application",
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": [".next/**", "dist/**"]
    },
    "test": {
      "description": "Run the test suite",
      "dependsOn": ["build"]
    },
    "lint": {
      "description": "Lint source files"
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    }
  }
}

Advanced pipeline with environment variables and inputs

{
  "$schema": "https://turborepo.dev/schema.json",
  "globalDependencies": [".env"],
  "globalEnv": ["CI", "NODE_ENV"],
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": [".next/**", "dist/**"],
      "env": ["DATABASE_URL", "NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL"],
      "inputs": ["src/**", "package.json", "tsconfig.json"]
    },
    "test": {
      "dependsOn": ["build"],
      "outputs": ["coverage/**"],
      "env": ["TEST_DATABASE_URL"]
    },
    "test:unit": {
      "dependsOn": [],
      "outputs": ["coverage/**"]
    },
    "lint": {
      "inputs": ["src/**", ".eslintrc.*"]
    },
    "typecheck": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "inputs": ["src/**", "tsconfig.json"]
    },
    "db:generate": {
      "cache": false
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    },
    "clean": {
      "cache": false
    }
  }
}

Key Configuration

dependsOn: ["^build"] — Run build in dependencies first (^ = topological)
dependsOn: ["build"] — Run build in the same package first (no ^)
outputs — Files to cache (build artifacts)
inputs — Files that affect the task hash (default: all non-gitignored files)
env — Environment variables that affect the task hash
cache: false — Skip caching (for dev servers, codegen)
persistent: true — Long-running tasks (dev servers)
globalDependencies — Files that invalidate all task caches when changed
globalEnv — Env vars that invalidate all task caches when changed

Workspace Filtering

Run tasks in specific packages or subsets of your monorepo:

# Single package
turbo build --filter=web
 
# Package and its dependencies
turbo build --filter=web...
 
# Package and its dependents (what depends on it)
turbo build --filter=...ui
 
# Multiple packages
turbo build --filter=web --filter=api
 
# By directory
turbo build --filter=./apps/*
 
# Packages that changed since main
turbo build --filter=[main]
 
# Combine: changed packages and their dependents
turbo build --filter=...[main]
 
# Exclude a package
turbo build --filter=!docs
 
# Packages matching a pattern
turbo build --filter=@myorg/*

Filter syntax reference

Pattern	Meaning
`web`	Only the `web` package
`web...`	`web` and all its dependencies
`...web`	`web` and all its dependents
`...web...`	`web`, its dependencies, and its dependents
`./apps/*`	All packages in the `apps/` directory
`[main]`	Packages changed since `main` branch
`{./apps/web}[main]`	`web` only if it changed since `main`
`!docs`	Exclude the `docs` package

CI Matrix Strategies

GitHub Actions — parallel jobs per package

name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]
 
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0 # Required for --affected
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22
      - run: npm ci
      - run: turbo build test lint --affected
        env:
          TURBO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURBO_TOKEN }}
          TURBO_TEAM: ${{ vars.TURBO_TEAM }}
 
  deploy-web:
    needs: build
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: turbo build --filter=web
        env:
          TURBO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURBO_TOKEN }}
          TURBO_TEAM: ${{ vars.TURBO_TEAM }}

Dynamic matrix from workspace list

jobs:
  detect:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      packages: ${{ steps.list.outputs.packages }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - id: list
        run: |
          PACKAGES=$(turbo ls --affected --output=json | jq -c '[.[].name]')
          echo "packages=$PACKAGES" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
  test:
    needs: detect
    if: needs.detect.outputs.packages != '[]'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        package: ${{ fromJson(needs.detect.outputs.packages) }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: turbo test --filter=${{ matrix.package }}

Remote caching in CI

# Set in CI environment
TURBO_TOKEN=your-vercel-token
TURBO_TEAM=your-vercel-team
 
# Builds automatically use remote cache
turbo build

Watch Mode

Run tasks in watch mode for development — re-executes when source files change:

# Watch a specific task
turbo watch test
 
# Watch with a filter
turbo watch test --filter=web
 
# Watch multiple tasks
turbo watch test lint

Watch mode respects the task graph — if test depends on build, changing a source file re-runs build first, then test.

Persistent tasks vs watch

persistent: true in turbo.json: The task itself is long-running (e.g., next dev). Turbo starts it and keeps it alive.
turbo watch: Turbo re-invokes the task on file changes. Use for tasks that run and exit (e.g., vitest run, tsc --noEmit).

Boundary Rules

Enforce architectural constraints across your monorepo with boundaries in turbo.json:

{
  "boundaries": {
    "tags": {
      "apps/*": ["app"],
      "packages/ui": ["shared", "ui"],
      "packages/utils": ["shared"],
      "packages/config": ["config"]
    },
    "rules": [
      {
        "from": ["app"],
        "allow": ["shared"]
      },
      {
        "from": ["shared"],
        "deny": ["app"]
      }
    ]
  }
}

This enforces:

Apps can import shared packages
Shared packages cannot import from apps
Violations produce build-time errors with turbo boundaries

# Check boundary compliance
turbo boundaries
 
# Add to your pipeline
{
  "tasks": {
    "check": {
      "dependsOn": ["lint", "typecheck", "boundaries"]
    },
    "boundaries": {}
  }
}

Graph Visualization

Inspect your task dependency graph:

# Print graph to terminal
turbo build --graph
 
# Output as DOT format (Graphviz)
turbo build --graph=graph.dot
 
# Output as JSON
turbo build --graph=graph.json
 
# Open interactive graph in browser
turbo build --graph=graph.html

Dry run — see what would execute

# Show tasks that would run without executing them
turbo build --dry-run
 
# JSON output for programmatic use
turbo build --dry-run=json

The dry run output shows:

Each task that would execute
Cache status (HIT or MISS)
Dependencies and dependents
File hash used for caching

Devtools & Docs (2.8+)

# Visual package/task graph explorer (hot-reloads on changes)
turbo devtools
 
# Search Turborepo docs from the terminal (returns agent-friendly markdown)
turbo docs
 
# Upgrade to latest Turborepo
npx @turbo/codemod migrate

Note: turbo docs output is optimized for AI coding agents — markdown format preserves context windows. The docs site also includes sample prompts for common tasks you can copy directly into your agent.

Composable Configuration (2.7+)

Package configs can now extend from any workspace package, not just the root:

// packages/ui/turbo.json
{
  "extends": ["@myorg/config"],
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "outputs": ["dist/**"]
    }
  }
}

Common Commands

# Run build across all packages
turbo build
 
# Run only affected packages (changed since main branch)
turbo build --affected
 
# Run specific tasks in specific packages
turbo build --filter=web
 
# Run with remote caching
turbo build --remote-cache
 
# Prune monorepo for a single app deployment
turbo prune web --docker
 
# List all packages
turbo ls
 
# List affected packages
turbo ls --affected

Remote Caching

# Login to Vercel for remote caching
turbo login
 
# Link to a Vercel team
turbo link
 
# Now builds share cache across all machines
turbo build  # Cache hits from CI, teammates, etc.

Monorepo Structure

my-monorepo/
├── turbo.json
├── package.json
├── apps/
│   ├── web/           # Next.js app
│   │   └── package.json
│   ├── api/           # Backend service
│   │   └── package.json
│   └── docs/          # Documentation site
│       └── package.json
├── packages/
│   ├── ui/            # Shared component library
│   │   └── package.json
│   ├── config/        # Shared configs (eslint, tsconfig)
│   │   └── package.json
│   └── utils/         # Shared utilities
│       └── package.json
└── node_modules/

--affected Flag

The most important optimization for CI pipelines:

# Only build/test packages that changed since main
turbo build test lint --affected

This performs intelligent graph traversal:

Identifies changed files since the base branch
Maps changes to affected packages
Includes all dependent packages (transitively)
Runs tasks only for the affected subgraph

Microfrontends & Multi-App Composition

Turborepo is the recommended orchestration layer for Vercel's Microfrontends architecture — composing multiple independently-deployed apps behind a single URL.

Monorepo Structure for Microfrontends

my-platform/
├── turbo.json
├── package.json
├── apps/
│   ├── shell/          # Layout / shell app (owns top-level routing)
│   ├── dashboard/      # Micro-app: dashboard features
│   ├── settings/       # Micro-app: settings features
│   └── marketing/      # Micro-app: public marketing site
└── packages/
    ├── ui/             # Shared component library
    ├── auth/           # Shared auth utilities
    └── config/         # Shared tsconfig, eslint

Independent Deploys

Each micro-app is a separate Vercel project with its own build and deploy lifecycle:

# Deploy only the dashboard micro-app
turbo build --filter=dashboard
 
# Deploy all micro-apps in parallel
turbo build --filter=./apps/*
 
# Deploy only micro-apps that changed since main
turbo build --filter=./apps/*...[main]

Shared Packages Across Micro-Apps

Use Turborepo's dependency graph to share code without coupling deploys:

{
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": [".next/**", "dist/**"]
    }
  }
}

Shared packages (ui, auth, config) are built first via ^build, then each micro-app builds against the latest shared code. Remote caching ensures shared package builds are never repeated across micro-app deploys.

Multi-Zone Patterns

Next.js multi-zones let each micro-app own a URL path prefix while sharing a single domain:

// apps/shell/next.config.ts
import type { NextConfig } from 'next'
 
const nextConfig: NextConfig = {
  async rewrites() {
    return [
      { source: '/dashboard/:path*', destination: 'https://dashboard.example.com/dashboard/:path*' },
      { source: '/settings/:path*', destination: 'https://settings.example.com/settings/:path*' },
    ]
  },
}
 
export default nextConfig

Combine with Turborepo boundary rules to enforce architectural isolation:

{
  "boundaries": {
    "tags": {
      "apps/*": ["micro-app"],
      "packages/ui": ["shared"],
      "packages/auth": ["shared"]
    },
    "rules": [
      { "from": ["micro-app"], "allow": ["shared"] },
      { "from": ["shared"], "deny": ["micro-app"] }
    ]
  }
}

When to Use Turborepo for Microfrontends

Scenario	Recommended?
Multiple teams owning independent features	Yes — independent deploys + shared packages
Single team, single app	No — standard Next.js is simpler
Shared component library across apps	Yes — `packages/ui` with boundary rules
Gradual migration from monolith	Yes — extract features into micro-apps incrementally
Need version-skew protection	Yes — isolated builds per micro-app

Bun Support & Lockfile Detection

Turborepo 2.6+ has stable Bun support with granular lockfile analysis:

Lockfile format: Turborepo requires bun.lock (text format). If only bun.lockb (binary) is found, it errors with a prompt to generate a text lockfile. Generate with bun install --save-text-lockfile.
Granular cache invalidation: Turborepo parses bun.lock to detect which specific packages changed and only invalidates caches for affected tasks — not the entire monorepo.
Pruning: turbo prune works with Bun workspaces, generating a minimal lockfile for single-app deploys.
Skip-builds detection: On Vercel, monorepo workspace detection automatically skips unaffected projects when bun.lock changes don't touch a project's dependencies. Combined with --affected, only changed packages and their dependents rebuild.

# Ensure text lockfile for Turborepo compatibility
bun install --save-text-lockfile
 
# Run only affected packages (works with Bun lockfile detection)
turbo build --affected

Known issue: turbo prune with Bun 1.3+ may produce lockfiles with formatting differences that break bun i --frozen-lockfile. Track fixes in turborepo#11007.

Deploying to Vercel

Vercel auto-detects Turborepo and optimizes builds. Each app in apps/ can be a separate Vercel project with automatic dependency detection.

When to Use Turborepo

Scenario	Use Turborepo?
Single Next.js app	No — Turbopack handles bundling
Multiple apps sharing code	Yes — orchestrate builds
Shared component library	Yes — manage dependencies
CI taking too long	Yes — caching + affected
Team sharing build artifacts	Yes — remote caching
Enforcing architecture boundaries	Yes — boundary rules
Complex multi-step CI pipelines	Yes — task graph + matrix

Official Documentation

npx skills add openai/plugins --skill turborepo

Documentation

SKILL.md

Turborepo expert guidance. Use when setting up or optimizing monorepo builds, configuring task caching, remote caching, parallel execution, or the --affected flag for incremental CI.

npx skills add openai/plugins --skill turborepo

Documentation

SKILL.mdView source

Turborepo

You are an expert in Turborepo v2.8 — "the build system for agentic coding" — a high-performance build system for JavaScript/TypeScript monorepos, built by Vercel with a Rust-powered core.

Key Features

Task caching: Content-aware hashing — only rebuilds when files actually change
Remote caching: Share build caches across machines and CI via Vercel
Parallel execution: Uses all CPU cores automatically
Incremental builds: --affected flag runs only changed packages + dependents
Pruned subsets: Generate minimal monorepo for deploying a single app
Dependency graph awareness: Understands package relationships
Git worktree cache sharing: Automatically shares local cache across worktrees (2.8+)
Devtools: Visual package and task graph explorer via turbo devtools (2.8+)
Composable configuration: Extend turbo.json from any package, not just root (2.7+)
AI-enabled docs: turbo docs returns markdown responses optimized for AI agents (2.8+)

Setup

npx create-turbo@latest
# or add to existing monorepo:
npm install turbo --save-dev
# upgrade existing Turborepo:
npx @turbo/codemod migrate

turbo.json Task Pipeline

The turbo.json file defines your task dependency graph. Here are comprehensive examples:

Basic pipeline

{
  "$schema": "https://turborepo.dev/schema.json",
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "description": "Compile TypeScript and bundle the application",
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": [".next/**", "dist/**"]
    },
    "test": {
      "description": "Run the test suite",
      "dependsOn": ["build"]
    },
    "lint": {
      "description": "Lint source files"
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    }
  }
}

Advanced pipeline with environment variables and inputs

{
  "$schema": "https://turborepo.dev/schema.json",
  "globalDependencies": [".env"],
  "globalEnv": ["CI", "NODE_ENV"],
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": [".next/**", "dist/**"],
      "env": ["DATABASE_URL", "NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL"],
      "inputs": ["src/**", "package.json", "tsconfig.json"]
    },
    "test": {
      "dependsOn": ["build"],
      "outputs": ["coverage/**"],
      "env": ["TEST_DATABASE_URL"]
    },
    "test:unit": {
      "dependsOn": [],
      "outputs": ["coverage/**"]
    },
    "lint": {
      "inputs": ["src/**", ".eslintrc.*"]
    },
    "typecheck": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "inputs": ["src/**", "tsconfig.json"]
    },
    "db:generate": {
      "cache": false
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    },
    "clean": {
      "cache": false
    }
  }
}

Key Configuration

dependsOn: ["^build"] — Run build in dependencies first (^ = topological)
dependsOn: ["build"] — Run build in the same package first (no ^)
outputs — Files to cache (build artifacts)
inputs — Files that affect the task hash (default: all non-gitignored files)
env — Environment variables that affect the task hash
cache: false — Skip caching (for dev servers, codegen)
persistent: true — Long-running tasks (dev servers)
globalDependencies — Files that invalidate all task caches when changed
globalEnv — Env vars that invalidate all task caches when changed

Workspace Filtering

Run tasks in specific packages or subsets of your monorepo:

# Single package
turbo build --filter=web
 
# Package and its dependencies
turbo build --filter=web...
 
# Package and its dependents (what depends on it)
turbo build --filter=...ui
 
# Multiple packages
turbo build --filter=web --filter=api
 
# By directory
turbo build --filter=./apps/*
 
# Packages that changed since main
turbo build --filter=[main]
 
# Combine: changed packages and their dependents
turbo build --filter=...[main]
 
# Exclude a package
turbo build --filter=!docs
 
# Packages matching a pattern
turbo build --filter=@myorg/*

Filter syntax reference

Pattern	Meaning
`web`	Only the `web` package
`web...`	`web` and all its dependencies
`...web`	`web` and all its dependents
`...web...`	`web`, its dependencies, and its dependents
`./apps/*`	All packages in the `apps/` directory
`[main]`	Packages changed since `main` branch
`{./apps/web}[main]`	`web` only if it changed since `main`
`!docs`	Exclude the `docs` package

CI Matrix Strategies

GitHub Actions — parallel jobs per package

name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]
 
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0 # Required for --affected
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22
      - run: npm ci
      - run: turbo build test lint --affected
        env:
          TURBO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURBO_TOKEN }}
          TURBO_TEAM: ${{ vars.TURBO_TEAM }}
 
  deploy-web:
    needs: build
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: turbo build --filter=web
        env:
          TURBO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURBO_TOKEN }}
          TURBO_TEAM: ${{ vars.TURBO_TEAM }}

Dynamic matrix from workspace list

jobs:
  detect:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      packages: ${{ steps.list.outputs.packages }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - id: list
        run: |
          PACKAGES=$(turbo ls --affected --output=json | jq -c '[.[].name]')
          echo "packages=$PACKAGES" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
  test:
    needs: detect
    if: needs.detect.outputs.packages != '[]'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        package: ${{ fromJson(needs.detect.outputs.packages) }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: turbo test --filter=${{ matrix.package }}

Remote caching in CI

# Set in CI environment
TURBO_TOKEN=your-vercel-token
TURBO_TEAM=your-vercel-team
 
# Builds automatically use remote cache
turbo build

Watch Mode

Run tasks in watch mode for development — re-executes when source files change:

# Watch a specific task
turbo watch test
 
# Watch with a filter
turbo watch test --filter=web
 
# Watch multiple tasks
turbo watch test lint

Watch mode respects the task graph — if test depends on build, changing a source file re-runs build first, then test.

Persistent tasks vs watch

persistent: true in turbo.json: The task itself is long-running (e.g., next dev). Turbo starts it and keeps it alive.
turbo watch: Turbo re-invokes the task on file changes. Use for tasks that run and exit (e.g., vitest run, tsc --noEmit).

Boundary Rules

Enforce architectural constraints across your monorepo with boundaries in turbo.json:

{
  "boundaries": {
    "tags": {
      "apps/*": ["app"],
      "packages/ui": ["shared", "ui"],
      "packages/utils": ["shared"],
      "packages/config": ["config"]
    },
    "rules": [
      {
        "from": ["app"],
        "allow": ["shared"]
      },
      {
        "from": ["shared"],
        "deny": ["app"]
      }
    ]
  }
}

This enforces:

Apps can import shared packages
Shared packages cannot import from apps
Violations produce build-time errors with turbo boundaries

# Check boundary compliance
turbo boundaries
 
# Add to your pipeline
{
  "tasks": {
    "check": {
      "dependsOn": ["lint", "typecheck", "boundaries"]
    },
    "boundaries": {}
  }
}

Graph Visualization

Inspect your task dependency graph:

# Print graph to terminal
turbo build --graph
 
# Output as DOT format (Graphviz)
turbo build --graph=graph.dot
 
# Output as JSON
turbo build --graph=graph.json
 
# Open interactive graph in browser
turbo build --graph=graph.html

Dry run — see what would execute

# Show tasks that would run without executing them
turbo build --dry-run
 
# JSON output for programmatic use
turbo build --dry-run=json

The dry run output shows:

Each task that would execute
Cache status (HIT or MISS)
Dependencies and dependents
File hash used for caching

Devtools & Docs (2.8+)

# Visual package/task graph explorer (hot-reloads on changes)
turbo devtools
 
# Search Turborepo docs from the terminal (returns agent-friendly markdown)
turbo docs
 
# Upgrade to latest Turborepo
npx @turbo/codemod migrate

Note: turbo docs output is optimized for AI coding agents — markdown format preserves context windows. The docs site also includes sample prompts for common tasks you can copy directly into your agent.

Composable Configuration (2.7+)

Package configs can now extend from any workspace package, not just the root:

// packages/ui/turbo.json
{
  "extends": ["@myorg/config"],
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "outputs": ["dist/**"]
    }
  }
}

Common Commands

# Run build across all packages
turbo build
 
# Run only affected packages (changed since main branch)
turbo build --affected
 
# Run specific tasks in specific packages
turbo build --filter=web
 
# Run with remote caching
turbo build --remote-cache
 
# Prune monorepo for a single app deployment
turbo prune web --docker
 
# List all packages
turbo ls
 
# List affected packages
turbo ls --affected

Remote Caching

# Login to Vercel for remote caching
turbo login
 
# Link to a Vercel team
turbo link
 
# Now builds share cache across all machines
turbo build  # Cache hits from CI, teammates, etc.

Monorepo Structure

my-monorepo/
├── turbo.json
├── package.json
├── apps/
│   ├── web/           # Next.js app
│   │   └── package.json
│   ├── api/           # Backend service
│   │   └── package.json
│   └── docs/          # Documentation site
│       └── package.json
├── packages/
│   ├── ui/            # Shared component library
│   │   └── package.json
│   ├── config/        # Shared configs (eslint, tsconfig)
│   │   └── package.json
│   └── utils/         # Shared utilities
│       └── package.json
└── node_modules/

--affected Flag

The most important optimization for CI pipelines:

# Only build/test packages that changed since main
turbo build test lint --affected

This performs intelligent graph traversal:

Identifies changed files since the base branch
Maps changes to affected packages
Includes all dependent packages (transitively)
Runs tasks only for the affected subgraph

Microfrontends & Multi-App Composition

Turborepo is the recommended orchestration layer for Vercel's Microfrontends architecture — composing multiple independently-deployed apps behind a single URL.

Monorepo Structure for Microfrontends

my-platform/
├── turbo.json
├── package.json
├── apps/
│   ├── shell/          # Layout / shell app (owns top-level routing)
│   ├── dashboard/      # Micro-app: dashboard features
│   ├── settings/       # Micro-app: settings features
│   └── marketing/      # Micro-app: public marketing site
└── packages/
    ├── ui/             # Shared component library
    ├── auth/           # Shared auth utilities
    └── config/         # Shared tsconfig, eslint

Independent Deploys

Each micro-app is a separate Vercel project with its own build and deploy lifecycle:

# Deploy only the dashboard micro-app
turbo build --filter=dashboard
 
# Deploy all micro-apps in parallel
turbo build --filter=./apps/*
 
# Deploy only micro-apps that changed since main
turbo build --filter=./apps/*...[main]

Shared Packages Across Micro-Apps

Use Turborepo's dependency graph to share code without coupling deploys:

{
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": [".next/**", "dist/**"]
    }
  }
}

Multi-Zone Patterns

Next.js multi-zones let each micro-app own a URL path prefix while sharing a single domain:

// apps/shell/next.config.ts
import type { NextConfig } from 'next'
 
const nextConfig: NextConfig = {
  async rewrites() {
    return [
      { source: '/dashboard/:path*', destination: 'https://dashboard.example.com/dashboard/:path*' },
      { source: '/settings/:path*', destination: 'https://settings.example.com/settings/:path*' },
    ]
  },
}
 
export default nextConfig

Combine with Turborepo boundary rules to enforce architectural isolation:

{
  "boundaries": {
    "tags": {
      "apps/*": ["micro-app"],
      "packages/ui": ["shared"],
      "packages/auth": ["shared"]
    },
    "rules": [
      { "from": ["micro-app"], "allow": ["shared"] },
      { "from": ["shared"], "deny": ["micro-app"] }
    ]
  }
}

When to Use Turborepo for Microfrontends

Scenario	Recommended?
Multiple teams owning independent features	Yes — independent deploys + shared packages
Single team, single app	No — standard Next.js is simpler
Shared component library across apps	Yes — `packages/ui` with boundary rules
Gradual migration from monolith	Yes — extract features into micro-apps incrementally
Need version-skew protection	Yes — isolated builds per micro-app

Bun Support & Lockfile Detection

Turborepo 2.6+ has stable Bun support with granular lockfile analysis:

Lockfile format: Turborepo requires bun.lock (text format). If only bun.lockb (binary) is found, it errors with a prompt to generate a text lockfile. Generate with bun install --save-text-lockfile.
Granular cache invalidation: Turborepo parses bun.lock to detect which specific packages changed and only invalidates caches for affected tasks — not the entire monorepo.
Pruning: turbo prune works with Bun workspaces, generating a minimal lockfile for single-app deploys.
Skip-builds detection: On Vercel, monorepo workspace detection automatically skips unaffected projects when bun.lock changes don't touch a project's dependencies. Combined with --affected, only changed packages and their dependents rebuild.

# Ensure text lockfile for Turborepo compatibility
bun install --save-text-lockfile
 
# Run only affected packages (works with Bun lockfile detection)
turbo build --affected

Known issue: turbo prune with Bun 1.3+ may produce lockfiles with formatting differences that break bun i --frozen-lockfile. Track fixes in turborepo#11007.

Deploying to Vercel

Vercel auto-detects Turborepo and optimizes builds. Each app in apps/ can be a separate Vercel project with automatic dependency detection.

When to Use Turborepo

Scenario	Use Turborepo?
Single Next.js app	No — Turbopack handles bundling
Multiple apps sharing code	Yes — orchestrate builds
Shared component library	Yes — manage dependencies
CI taking too long	Yes — caching + affected
Team sharing build artifacts	Yes — remote caching
Enforcing architecture boundaries	Yes — boundary rules
Complex multi-step CI pipelines	Yes — task graph + matrix

turborepo

Documentation

Documentation

turborepo

Documentation

Turborepo

Key Features

Setup

turbo.json Task Pipeline

Basic pipeline

Advanced pipeline with environment variables and inputs

Key Configuration

Workspace Filtering

Filter syntax reference

CI Matrix Strategies

GitHub Actions — parallel jobs per package

Dynamic matrix from workspace list

Remote caching in CI

Watch Mode

Persistent tasks vs watch

Boundary Rules

Graph Visualization

Dry run — see what would execute

Devtools & Docs (2.8+)

Composable Configuration (2.7+)

Common Commands

Remote Caching

Monorepo Structure

--affected Flag

Microfrontends & Multi-App Composition

Monorepo Structure for Microfrontends

Independent Deploys

Shared Packages Across Micro-Apps

Multi-Zone Patterns

When to Use Turborepo for Microfrontends

Related Documentation

Bun Support & Lockfile Detection

Deploying to Vercel

When to Use Turborepo

Official Documentation

Documentation

Documentation

Turborepo

Key Features

Setup

turbo.json Task Pipeline

Basic pipeline

Advanced pipeline with environment variables and inputs

Key Configuration

Workspace Filtering

Filter syntax reference

CI Matrix Strategies

GitHub Actions — parallel jobs per package

Dynamic matrix from workspace list

Remote caching in CI

Watch Mode

Persistent tasks vs watch

Boundary Rules

Graph Visualization

Dry run — see what would execute

Devtools & Docs (2.8+)

Composable Configuration (2.7+)

Common Commands

Remote Caching

Monorepo Structure

--affected Flag

Microfrontends & Multi-App Composition

Monorepo Structure for Microfrontends

Independent Deploys

Shared Packages Across Micro-Apps

Multi-Zone Patterns

When to Use Turborepo for Microfrontends

Related Documentation

Bun Support & Lockfile Detection

Deploying to Vercel

When to Use Turborepo

Official Documentation