Monorepo

Code is kept in a repository. You can think of a repository ("repo" for short) as a box that holds code. Developers can pick up that box and move it other places, create duplicates of the box, or create new versions of it as they need to.

A monorepo is if you took every ounce of code for an entire company and stuffed it into the same repository.

That makes sense. How else would you do it?#

Today, there are gigantic organizations managing billions of lines of code with tens and even hundreds of products. Sometimes, they decide that it is too difficult to keep all of their code in one place. It's 50 pounds of stuff to put in a 10 pound box.

Instead of creating a monorepo, they will instead use multirepos. As you can imagine, this means taking the code and putting it in several different boxes.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these approaches. Teams decide on which strategy to use based on their specific situation and how they want to work.

Why would you use a monorepo?#

Monorepos make sense for smaller businesses with fewer products. A monorepo is almost always easier to manage since all of the required code can live in one place. In a multirepo situation, suddenly code is flying around all over the place and can be difficult to manage if you don't need it. So, to have less to deal with, a monorepo can make sense. Teams can find themselves working faster, building faster, and delivering value faster.