Monorepo Dependency Management

Dependency management in a large codebase is complicated. There are basically two options:

1. Let each team / app own its own dependencies
2. Centralize all dependencies for all teams / apps

I don’t know that there’s a right answer. It depends on your goals and what’s important to you. (s/you/the organization 🤷‍♂) Let’s explore some of the pros and cons.

Independent dependencies §

Independent…dependencies. Right. That makes sense. Next, you’ll talk about dependent independence, eh?

Don’t tempt me. 😜 For now, however, I’ll stick with independent dependencies. Specifically, I’m talking about when each application or library in the monorepo manages its own dependencies.

Pros §

• Dependency updates can be performed incrementally if needed
• Adding new dependencies requires no additional approval process
  • Unless, of course, you want that, but then why aren’t you using centralized dependencies? 🤨

Cons §

• Different versions of a dependency may proliferate
  • Think component library on React 16 with hooks, and application on React 14 without hooks

Choose this option when… §

• You trust your teams to stay up-to-date with their dependencies
• All apps and libraries have a team responsible for them
  • This can be either the team developing on it, or a team responsible for maintenance of projects with no owners

Centralized dependencies §

Pros §

• The same version of a dependency is used throughout the codebase

Cons §

• Updating versions can be painful