Monorepo vs polyrepo — what are the trade-offs?

Question

"3 apps (web, mobile, API) and 5 shared packages. One repo or separate?"

Interview OS Community · Accepted Answer

| Aspect | Monorepo | Polyrepo |
|--------|----------|----------|
| Code sharing | Easy (direct imports) | Hard (npm packages) |
| Atomic changes | Single PR | Coordinated PRs |
| CI/CD | Complex (affected only) | Simple |
| Access control | All or nothing | Per-repo |

Tools: Turborepo/Nx for monorepo build optimization (only rebuild changed packages).

**Recommendation**: <10 devs → monorepo. 10-50 → monorepo with Turborepo. 50+ with separate teams → polyrepo.

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Monorepo vs polyrepo — what are the trade-offs?

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Aspect	Monorepo	Polyrepo
Code sharing	Easy (direct imports)	Hard (npm packages)
Atomic changes	Single PR	Coordinated PRs
CI/CD	Complex (affected only)	Simple
Access control	All or nothing	Per-repo