I’ve been thinking about monorepos lately. Not just the concept, but the real, daily grind of managing one. You know the feeling: a project grows, you add a package, then another, and suddenly your simple build script is a tangled mess of dependencies. The build times creep up. The developer experience suffers. I found myself asking: what if we didn’t have to choose just one tool to solve this? What if we could combine the strengths of two leading solutions?

This led me to explore a hybrid approach: using Nx alongside Turborepo. On the surface, they seem like competitors. But look closer, and you see complementary strengths. Nx offers a powerful, structured system for managing complex relationships between projects. Turborepo delivers raw speed through its caching. Using them together isn’t about replacing one with the other; it’s about creating a layered system where each handles what it does best.

Let’s start with the foundation. Nx provides the structure. It understands your workspace. It knows how your libraries and applications connect. You can generate code, visualize dependencies with a simple command, and enforce consistent architecture. It’s the brain of the operation. Setting up a new library in an Nx workspace is straightforward. You get a standardized structure, linting, and testing configured out of the box.

# With Nx, creating a new shared library is a single command
npx nx generate @nx/js:library shared-utils --directory=libs

This command creates a new library in libs/shared-utils with a proper tsconfig, Jest setup, and build configuration. Nx manages the project graph, so it immediately knows how this new library relates to everything else. But here’s a question: once you have dozens of these libraries, how do you ensure only the affected ones are rebuilt after a change?

This is where Turborepo enters the picture. While Nx has its own caching, Turborepo’s caching mechanism is famously fast and simple. Its strength is in making incremental builds and remote caching almost effortless. You can configure a pipeline in your turbo.json that tells Turborepo how tasks depend on each other.

// turbo.json
{
  "pipeline": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": ["dist/**"]
    },
    "test": {
      "dependsOn": ["build"],
      "outputs": []
    }
  }
}

This configuration says: “To run build on a package, first build all its dependencies (^build).” Turborepo then caches the results based on file hashes. The next time you run the build, unchanged packages skip the work entirely. It’s this caching layer, especially when paired with remote caching for your CI/CD pipeline, that can cut build times from minutes to seconds.

So, how do they work together? Think of Nx as the project manager and Turborepo as the foreman. Nx defines the projects, their relationships, and the available tasks. You might use Nx’s generators to scaffold code, its graph command to analyze dependencies, and its powerful executors to run complex operations. Then, for the actual build and test pipeline—the part that runs most often—you delegate to Turborepo for its speed.

In practice, your package.json scripts might look like this:

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "nx run-many --target=serve --all",
    "generate": "nx generate @nx/react:component",
    "build": "turbo run build",
    "test": "turbo run test"
  }
}

You use nx for development and code generation tasks, and turbo for the heavy, repetitive build and test cycles. This setup leverages Nx’s rich ecosystem of plugins for frameworks like React, Angular, or Node.js, while capturing the blistering performance of Turborepo’s caching for your core pipeline.

Is this approach for everyone? Probably not. For a small monorepo with five packages, the overhead of configuring two tools might outweigh the benefits. The complexity is real. You need to be mindful not to let the caching layers conflict. You must clearly decide which tool owns which responsibility to avoid confusion.

But for larger organizations, or codebases in transition, the hybrid model offers a compelling path. Imagine migrating a large, existing Turborepo monorepo to Nx. You could introduce Nx incrementally for its code generation and dependency insights, while keeping your proven Turborepo build pipeline intact. Or, you might have an Nx monorepo that’s hitting performance walls in CI; layering in Turborepo’s remote caching could be a quicker win than re-engineering your entire Nx task runner setup.

The key is intentionality. You’re not just piling tools on top of each other. You are architecting a system. Nx handles the complexity of project relationships and developer tooling. Turborepo ensures the repetitive tasks are executed with maximum efficiency. Together, they can create a developer experience that is both powerful and fast.

What does your ideal monorepo workflow look like? Does raw speed matter more, or is the ability to visualize and control dependencies your top priority? For many teams, the answer is “both.”

I’ve found that stepping away from the “either/or” debate opens up interesting solutions. By combining Nx’s comprehensive workspace management with Turborepo’s focused caching performance, we can build systems that support both scale and speed. It requires careful thought and clear boundaries, but the payoff is a monorepo that doesn’t force you to compromise.

If you’ve wrestled with monorepo scaling issues, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Have you tried a similar approach? What challenges did you face? Drop a comment below and let’s discuss. If this perspective was helpful, please consider sharing it with others who might be navigating the same complex landscape.

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