Get started with Turborepo CLI and ship your project to production in seconds

Are you tired of managing complex JavaScript monorepos with slow build times and inefficient pipelines? Turborepo CLI is the game-changing tool you've been waiting for. Built to revolutionize how developers orchestrate their codebases, Turborepo brings unprecedented speed, reliability, and developer experience to JavaScript and TypeScript projects.

In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore everything you need to know about Turborepo CLI and how it can help you ship your projects to production faster than ever before.

What is Turborepo CLI?

Turborepo is an intelligent build system and high-performance monorepo tool created by Vercel. It's specifically designed to tackle the challenges of managing JavaScript and TypeScript monorepos with efficiency and elegance. At its core, Turborepo CLI provides:

• Incremental builds - Only rebuild what's changed, not your entire codebase
• Advanced caching - Local and remote caching for blazing-fast build times
• Parallel execution - Utilize all CPU cores to maximize build efficiency
• Task dependencies - Define clear dependencies between tasks across packages
• Integrated profiling - Visualize your build process to identify bottlenecks

Whether you're building a complex enterprise application or a small side project, Turborepo makes managing code at any scale dramatically simpler and faster.

Why Turborepo outperforms traditional build tools?

Traditional build systems like Webpack, Babel, or plain npm scripts often struggle with the complexity of modern JavaScript projects, especially monorepos. Monorepo tools such as Lerna and Nx have attempted to solve these challenges, but Turborepo addresses these pain points with several key innovations:

Turborepo has transformed our development workflow. What used to take 15 minutes to build now completes in under 30 seconds. - Engineering Lead at a Fortune 500 company

Performance comparisons

Getting started with Turborepo CLI

Getting started with Turborepo is remarkably straightforward, making it accessible for developers at any experience level.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• Node.js v14.0 or higher
• npm, yarn, or pnpm package manager
• Basic understanding of monorepo concepts (optional)

Installation

You can use Turborepo in two primary ways:

1. Install globally (recommended for frequent use):

npm install turbo --global
# or
yarn global add turbo
# or
pnpm add -g turbo

2. Use with npx (no installation required):

npx turbo <command>

Creating your first Turborepo

For new projects, Turborepo provides a convenient way to bootstrap a monorepo:

npx create-turbo@latest

This interactive CLI will guide you through setting up a new Turborepo with sensible defaults and your choice of package manager.

Accelerate your setup with TurboStarter

While Turborepo provides an excellent foundation, you might want to skip some configuration steps and start with production-ready templates. Our TurboStarter kits offer pre-configured Turborepo setups with authentication, database connections, and UI components already integrated for web, mobile, and browser extension projects—letting you focus on building your product rather than configuration.

If you prefer a streamlined command-line experience, you can use our TurboStarter CLI:

npx turbostarter new

This CLI helps you quickly initialize new projects with all the benefits of Turborepo, plus additional features like authentication, database setups, and deployment configurations already configured—all through an intuitive command-line interface.

✔ All prerequisites satisfied.
ℹ Configuring web app...
✔ API installed.
✔ Billing setup created.
✔ Emails configuration done.
ℹ Configuring mobile app...
✔ Authentication set up.
✔ Published to stores.
ℹ Configuring browser extension...
✔ Themes installed.
✔ Connected with web app.
✔ Project initialization completed.

Core concepts and architecture

Understanding Turborepo's core concepts will help you maximize its potential.

Workspaces and packages

In Turborepo, your codebase is organized into workspaces containing multiple packages:

my-monorepo/
├── apps/
│   ├── web/
│   └── docs/
├── packages/
│   ├── ui/
│   ├── config/
│   └── utils/
├── package.json
└── turbo.json

This structure allows you to:

• Maintain separation of concerns
• Share code efficiently between projects
• Manage dependencies with precision
• Build and test only what's necessary

The turbo.json configuration file

The heart of Turborepo's power lies in the turbo.json configuration file:

{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "pipeline": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": ["dist/**", ".next/**"]
    },
    "test": {
      "dependsOn": ["build"],
      "inputs": ["src/**/*.tsx", "src/**/*.ts", "test/**/*.ts"]
    },
    "lint": {},
    "deploy": {
      "dependsOn": ["build", "test", "lint"]
    }
  }
}

This file defines your build pipeline, specifying:

• Task dependencies (what must run before a task)
• Outputs (what files are produced by a task)
• Inputs (what files affect a task)
• Cache configurations

Advanced Turborepo techniques

Once you've mastered the basics, these advanced techniques will help you extract even more value from Turborepo.

Remote caching

Remote caching allows your team to share build artifacts, dramatically accelerating builds across your organization:

turbo login
turbo link

With remote caching enabled, if someone on your team has already built a specific piece of code, everyone else can instantly reuse those build artifacts.

Optimizing for CI/CD pipelines

Turborepo shines in continuous integration environments with features designed specifically for CI/CD:

# Only run tasks that have changed since the main branch
turbo run build --filter=[HEAD^1]
 
# Output build artifacts to specific locations
turbo run build --output-logs=new-only
 
# Utilize remote caching in CI
turbo run build --team="your-team" --token="your-token"

These commands help you:

• Minimize CI execution time
• Reduce cloud computation costs
• Accelerate feedback loops

Filtering for focused development

Turborepo's powerful filtering syntax lets you target specific packages or applications:

# Run tests only for packages that depend on the utils package
turbo run test --filter=...utils
 
# Build only the web app and its dependencies
turbo run build --filter=web...
 
# Build everything except the docs
turbo run build --filter=!docs

This granular control is invaluable for large monorepos where running all tasks would be prohibitively time-consuming.

Real-world use cases and examples

Enterprise-scale application development

For large organizations managing dozens or hundreds of packages, Turborepo provides:

• Consistent environments across development, testing, and production
• Dependency graph visualization for understanding complex relationships
• Granular caching that dramatically reduces build times
• Team collaboration through shared remote caches

A major financial institution reduced their build times from 45 minutes to under 5 minutes by adopting Turborepo, resulting in over $2 million in annual developer productivity gains.

Full-stack application deployment

For full-stack applications with shared components, Turborepo enables:

# Deploy both frontend and backend with a single command
turbo run deploy --filter=api --filter=web

This ensures consistent deployment across your stack and prevents dependency mismatches.

Open-source library maintenance

For open-source maintainers, Turborepo simplifies:

• Version management across multiple packages
• Testing across environments with minimal configuration
• Documentation generation as part of the build pipeline
• Consistent publishing workflows for npm and other registries

Troubleshooting and common issues

Even with Turborepo's robust design, you may encounter occasional challenges:

Cache invalidation issues

If you're experiencing unexpected cache misses:

# Clear your local cache
turbo clean
 
# Debug cache hits and misses
turbo run build --dry=json

Dependency management

For complex dependency issues:

# Visualize your project's dependency graph
turbo run build --graph

This command generates a visual representation of your project's dependencies, making it easier to identify and resolve conflicts.

Migrating from other build systems

Transitioning to Turborepo from other systems is straightforward:

The future of Turborepo

Turborepo is rapidly evolving with an active development roadmap:

• Enhanced caching mechanisms for even faster builds
• Improved dependency analysis for smarter task scheduling
• Expanded integration options with popular development tools
• Advanced profiling for deeper build optimization

The Vercel team is committed to making Turborepo the most developer-friendly and powerful build system for JavaScript ecosystems.

Conclusion: Turbocharge your development workflow

Turborepo CLI represents a quantum leap forward in monorepo management for JavaScript and TypeScript projects. By combining intelligent caching, optimized task scheduling, and developer-friendly configuration, it addresses the most significant pain points in modern application development.

Whether you're working on a small project or managing a complex enterprise codebase, Turborepo can dramatically improve your development experience, reducing build times from minutes to seconds and simplifying complex workflows.

npx create-turbo@latest

If you want to move even faster and avoid repetitive setup tasks, check out our TurboStarter kits for ready-to-deploy project templates built on Turborepo with best practices and common features already implemented. Or simply run npx turbostarter new to get started in seconds with our CLI.

Have you implemented Turborepo in your projects? We'd love to hear about your experience! Share your stories, tips, or questions, happy building! 🚀