Features
- Intelligent task caching (local and remote)
- Parallel task execution across packages
- Pipeline configuration for task dependencies
- Remote caching via Vercel for team-wide cache sharing
Pros
- Dramatically speeds up monorepo builds with caching
- Simple setup with minimal configuration
- Works with any package manager (npm, pnpm, yarn)
Cons
- Remote caching requires Vercel account or self-hosting
- Less full-featured than Nx for complex orchestration
- Task configuration can be limiting for non-standard workflows
Overview
Turborepo is a high-performance build system for JavaScript and TypeScript monorepos, created by Jared Palmer and now maintained by Vercel. It sits on top of your existing package manager (npm, pnpm, or yarn) and adds intelligent caching and task orchestration to dramatically speed up builds.
Turborepo’s core feature is its caching system. It hashes the inputs to each task (source files, environment variables, dependencies) and caches the outputs. When inputs haven’t changed, tasks complete instantly by replaying cached results. Remote caching allows teams to share this cache, so one developer’s build results benefit the entire team.
The pipeline configuration system lets you define relationships between tasks (e.g., “build depends on the build of all dependencies”), and Turborepo automatically parallelizes everything that can run concurrently.
When to Use
Choose Turborepo for monorepos that need fast, cached builds with minimal configuration overhead. It is ideal when you want to add caching on top of an existing monorepo without adopting a full-featured build orchestrator like Nx.
Getting Started
npx create-turbo@latest my-monorepo
cd my-monorepo
npx turbo run build