Selecting Monorepo can improve multi-project collaboration efficiency and code sharing. Nx is more suitable for building medium and large systems from scratch, providing intelligent task scheduling, rich plug-in ecosystem and IDE integration; Lerna is good at NPM package management, suitable for existing build systems or open source projects. Both can also be used in combination. In practice, Nx can initialize and add plug-in to generate projects through create-nx-workspace; Lerna needs to set workspaces and use lerna create to create packages, and select the appropriate version strategy.

When you want to uniformly manage the code, dependencies and build processes of multiple front-end projects, Monorepo (single warehouse multiple projects) becomes a solution worth considering. Nx and Lerna are the two most mainstream tools at present. They all help you manage multiple projects in the same warehouse, but each has its own focus. If you are hesitant between the two, this article should help you clarify your thoughts.

Why choose Monorepo?

Monorepo's core advantages are more convenient code sharing, more unified version control, and higher collaboration efficiency . For example, if you are developing multiple React component libraries or micro front-end applications, there may be shared UI components, tool functions, or configuration files between these projects. Maintaining it in a traditional multi-warehouse way is cumbersome, and Monorepo allows you to do it all in one place.

In addition, for large teams, Monorepo also helps reduce the “version hell” problem. For example, project A uses v1 of a package, and project B uses v2, which can easily lead to problems during upgrades. In Monorepo, you can make sure that all projects are using the same version.

Nx: Modern front-end engineering integration solution

Nx is a complete monorepo toolchain launched by Nrwl. It not only supports mainstream frameworks such as Angular, React, Vue, etc., but also has built-in functions such as code generator, dependency analysis, cache construction, distributed task execution , etc.

Its core advantages are:

• Intelligent task scheduling : It can automatically identify which projects are affected and only the modified parts are built/tested.
• Rich plug-in ecosystem : The official provides support for Angular, React, Node.js, etc., and the community has also expanded a lot.
• Deep integration with IDE : With the VS Code plug-in, you can easily view dependency graphs, run tasks, etc.

If you want a tool out of the box and don't want to write too many scripts yourself, Nx will be a perfect choice.

Lerna: The old JS Monorepo management tool

Lerna is the first popular monorepo tool, mainly aimed at the JavaScript community. It is good at handling dependencies between version management and packages , and is suitable for project structures with NPM packages as the core.

Features of Lerna include:

• Version release automation : supports two modes: fixed version number (fixed) and independent version number (independent).
• * Simple workspace: Dependency mechanism**: Local packages can be directly referenced, and there is no need to publish first.
• Lightweight : Lerna focuses more on package management issues than Nx.

If you are mainly doing open source projects, NPM package management, or you already have your own build system and just need a tool to coordinate versions and dependencies, then Lerna will be more suitable for you.

How to choose a model? Depend on your actual needs

• If you are building a medium and large front-end system from scratch, such as including multiple micro front-ends, server modules, and shared libraries, it is recommended to directly access Nx. It provides a complete tool chain and is suitable for long-term maintenance.
• If you already have multiple NPM packages, or your team is more familiar with npm/yarn’s workflow, Lerna may be easier to get started.
• If you pursue extreme performance optimization, such as speeding up CI construction and incremental construction, Nx provides more ready-made solutions.

Of course, the two can also be used in combination. For example, use Lerna for version release, and use Nx for construction and dependency management. However, although this combination is flexible, it also increases learning and maintenance costs.

Practical operation tips

If you decide to try Nx, you can start with the following steps:

• Initialize a workspace using npx create-nx-workspace
• Add plugin, such as @nx/react or @nx/angular
• Create a new project or library with nx generate
• Installing Nx plug-in in .vscode/extensions.json improves development experience

If it's Lerna:

• Remember to set "workspaces": true in package.json
• Create a new package using lerna create
• Confirm the version strategy before release (fixed vs independent)

Basically that's it. Monorepo is not a silver bullet, but it can significantly improve development efficiency in the right scenario. Nx is more like an all-rounder, while Lerna is a veteran expert in package management. Just choose according to your project type and team habits.

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