Monorepo Navigator

Navigate, manage, and optimize monorepos at any scale. Covers Turborepo, Nx, pnpm workspaces, and Lerna/Changesets for cross-package impact analysis, selective builds on affected packages only, dependency graph visualization, remote caching configuration, migration from multi-repo to monorepo with preserved git history, and coordinated package publishing with automated changelogs.

Keywords: monorepo, Turborepo, Nx, pnpm workspaces, Changesets, dependency graph, remote cache, affected packages, selective builds, cross-package impact, npm publishing, workspace protocol

Core Capabilities

• Impact analysis — determine which apps break when a shared package changes, trace dependency chains, visualize Mermaid graphs, and calculate blast radius.
• Selective execution — run tests/builds only for affected packages, filter by changed files since a git ref, and skip unchanged packages in CI.
• Build optimization — remote caching (Turborepo/Vercel, Nx Cloud), incremental builds with input/output config, dependency-aware parallel scheduling, and artifact sharing.
• Publishing — Changesets for coordinated versioning, automated per-package changelogs, pre-release channels, and workspace:* replacement during publish.

When to Use

• Multiple packages/apps share code (UI components, utils, types, API clients)
• Build times are slow because everything rebuilds on every change
• Migrating from multiple repos to a single monorepo
• Publishing npm packages with coordinated versioning
• Teams work across packages and need unified tooling

Clarify First

Before analyzing or configuring, settle the inputs below. When one is missing or vague and would change the result, ask about it; when it wouldn't, use a sensible default and say which one you used.

• Tooling: Turborepo, Nx, pnpm workspaces, or Changesets (drives the config and commands generated).
• Task: impact/dependency analysis, build optimization, or publishing setup (selects dependency_graph.py vs impact_detector.py vs package_analyzer.py).
• Repo root & git ref: the monorepo path and the baseline ref for "affected" detection (sets --ref and what counts as changed).

Ask about the two or three inputs that matter most for this request, not the whole list. If the user wants a result straight away, produce it and state your assumptions at the top.

Tools

Tool	Purpose	Command
dependency_graph.py	Generate a Mermaid dependency graph of internal packages	python scripts/dependency_graph.py . --focus @repo/ui --direction dependents
impact_detector.py	Detect which packages are affected by file changes	python scripts/impact_detector.py . --ref origin/main --affected-only
package_analyzer.py	Analyze package structure, dependencies, and health	python scripts/package_analyzer.py . --only-shared

References

Load the reference that matches the task — keep this file lean and pull detail on demand:

• references/tooling-and-configuration.md — tool selection decision matrix, recommended repo structure, full turbo.json and pnpm-workspace config, key Turborepo/pnpm commands, impact-analysis commands, remote-caching setup, affected-only CI workflow, Changesets publishing, and multi-repo→monorepo migration steps. Read when configuring or operating a monorepo.
• references/operations-and-best-practices.md — common pitfalls, best practices, troubleshooting table, and success criteria. Read when something misbehaves or when validating a setup.

Scope & Limitations

This skill covers:

• Turborepo, Nx, and pnpm workspace configuration and optimization
• Cross-package dependency analysis and impact visualization
• Remote caching setup (Vercel, Nx Cloud, self-hosted)
• Changesets-based coordinated versioning and npm publishing

This skill does NOT cover:

• Application-level build configuration (webpack, Vite, esbuild internals) — see performance-profiler
• CI/CD pipeline design beyond monorepo-specific filters — see ci-cd-pipeline-builder
• Git branching strategies and release flow — see release-manager
• Dependency vulnerability scanning and license auditing — see dependency-auditor

Integration Points

Skill	Integration	Data Flow
ci-cd-pipeline-builder	Monorepo-aware CI workflows use --filter flags and remote caching tokens	Monorepo Navigator defines filter patterns and cache config that CI pipelines consume
release-manager	Changesets versioning feeds into release orchestration and tag management	Release Manager triggers changeset version and changeset publish as part of release flow
dependency-auditor	Workspace dependency graph informs vulnerability and license scanning scope	Monorepo Navigator exports the package dependency tree that Dependency Auditor analyzes
performance-profiler	Build profiling data identifies slow packages for optimization	Performance Profiler measures per-package build times surfaced by Turborepo --summarize
changelog-generator	Changesets produce per-package changelogs consumed by release notes	Changeset summaries flow into Changelog Generator for formatted release documentation
tech-debt-tracker	Cross-package coupling and circular dependencies surface as tracked tech debt items	Monorepo Navigator's impact analysis identifies coupling hotspots that Tech Debt Tracker records