Speeding Up Development with Turborepo: Using Turbo with Vite and Webpack

Introduction

Modern frontend development often requires handling complex builds, large codebases, and multiple packages. This can lead to slow builds and inefficient workflows. Turborepo is a high-performance build system designed to speed up development by caching tasks and running them in parallel. This article explores how to use Turborepo with Vite and Webpack to enhance development speed and efficiency.

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What is Turborepo?

Turborepo is a monorepo build system that optimizes project workflows by providing:

• Task Caching: Prevents redundant work by storing previous task results.
• Parallel Execution: Runs multiple tasks at once to speed up builds.
• Incremental Builds: Only rebuilds parts of the project that have changed.
• Optimized CI/CD Workflows: Reduces build times in continuous integration pipelines.

Originally designed for monorepos, Turborepo can also be used for single projects to enhance performance.

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Setting Up Turborepo with Vite

1. Install Turborepo

To use Turborepo in a Vite project, install it as a development dependency:

npm install turbo --save-dev
# or
yarn add turbo --dev
# or
pnpm add turbo --save-dev

2. Configure Turborepo

Create a turbo.json file in the root directory:

{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": [".vite", "dist"]
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    }
  }
}

3. Add packageManager to package.json

Turborepo requires an explicit package manager version. Add the following field to your package.json:

For npm:

"packageManager": "npm@9.9.0"

(Replace 9.9.0 with your actual npm version.)

For pnpm:

"packageManager": "pnpm@8.6.0"

For yarn:

"packageManager": "yarn@1.22.19"

4. Update Scripts in package.json

Modify your scripts to use Turborepo:

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "turbo run dev",
    "build": "turbo run build",
    "lint": "turbo run lint",
    "test": "turbo run test"
  }
}

5. Run Vite with Turbo

Start the development server using:

npx turbo run dev

For production builds:

npx turbo run build

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Using Turborepo with Webpack

1. Install Turborepo

For Webpack-based projects, install Turbo:

npm install turbo --save-dev

2. Configure turbo.json

Create a turbo.json file:

{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": ["dist"]
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    }
  }
}

3. Add packageManager to package.json

Ensure Webpack also has the correct package manager version:

"packageManager": "npm@9.9.0"

(Adjust the version as needed.)

4. Update Webpack Scripts

Modify package.json scripts:

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "turbo run dev",
    "build": "turbo run build",
    "lint": "turbo run lint",
    "test": "turbo run test"
  }
}

5. Run Webpack with Turbo

Start Webpack development server:

npx turbo run dev

For production builds:

npx turbo run build

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Benefits of Using Turbo with Vite and Webpack

Feature	Without Turbo	With Turbo
Build Speed	Slower builds, full recompilation	Smart caching & parallel builds
Incremental Builds	Full project rebuild every time	Only changed files are rebuilt
Parallel Execution	Limited parallelism	Runs multiple tasks at once
CI/CD Optimization	Each build runs separately	Reuses cached builds in CI/CD

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Conclusion

By integrating Turborepo with Vite and Webpack, you can significantly improve build performance, reduce redundant work, and accelerate development. Whether working on a monorepo or a single project, Turbo provides caching, parallel execution, and optimized workflows that make modern frontend development faster and more efficient.

Would you like to explore Turborepo for full-stack applications? Let us know in the comments!