Turborepo Caching

Production patterns for Turborepo build optimization.

When to Use This Skill

• Setting up new Turborepo projects
• Configuring build pipelines
• Implementing remote caching
• Optimizing CI/CD performance
• Migrating from other monorepo tools
• Debugging cache misses

Core Concepts

1. Turborepo Architecture

Workspace Root/
├── apps/
│   ├── web/
│   │   └── package.json
│   └── docs/
│       └── package.json
├── packages/
│   ├── ui/
│   │   └── package.json
│   └── config/
│       └── package.json
├── turbo.json
└── package.json

2. Pipeline Concepts

Templates

Template 1: turbo.json Configuration

{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "globalDependencies": [".env", ".env.local"],
  "globalEnv": ["NODE_ENV", "VERCEL_URL"],
  "pipeline": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": ["dist/**", ".next/**", "!.next/cache/**"],
      "env": ["API_URL", "NEXT_PUBLIC_*"]
    },
    "test": {
      "dependsOn": ["build"],
      "outputs": ["coverage/**"],
      "inputs": ["src/**/*.tsx", "src/**/*.ts", "test/**/*.ts"]
    },
    "lint": {
      "outputs": [],
      "cache": true
    },
    "typecheck": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "outputs": []
    },
    "dev": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    },
    "clean": {
      "cache": false
    }
  }
}

Template 2: Package-Specific Pipeline

// apps/web/turbo.json
{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "extends": ["//"],
  "pipeline": {
    "build": {
      "outputs": [".next/**", "!.next/cache/**"],
      "env": ["NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL", "NEXT_PUBLIC_ANALYTICS_ID"]
    },
    "test": {
      "outputs": ["coverage/**"],
      "inputs": ["src/**", "tests/**", "jest.config.js"]
    }
  }
}

Template 3: Remote Caching with Vercel

# Login to Vercel
npx turbo login

# Link to Vercel project
npx turbo link

# Run with remote cache
turbo build --remote-only

# CI environment variables
TURBO_TOKEN=your-token
TURBO_TEAM=your-team

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:

env:
  TURBO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURBO_TOKEN }}
  TURBO_TEAM: ${{ vars.TURBO_TEAM }}

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: "npm"

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Build
        run: npx turbo build --filter='...[origin/main]'

      - name: Test
        run: npx turbo test --filter='...[origin/main]'

Template 4: Self-Hosted Remote Cache

// Custom remote cache server (Express)
import express from "express";
import { createReadStream, createWriteStream } from "fs";
import { mkdir } from "fs/promises";
import { join } from "path";

const app = express();
const CACHE_DIR = "./cache";

// Get artifact
app.get("/v8/artifacts/:hash", async (req, res) => {
  const { hash } = req.params;
  const team = req.query.teamId || "default";
  const filePath = join(CACHE_DIR, team, hash);

  try {
    const stream = createReadStream(filePath);
    stream.pipe(res);
  } catch {
    res.status(404).send("Not found");
  }
});

// Put artifact
app.put("/v8/artifacts/:hash", async (req, res) => {
  const { hash } = req.params;
  const team = req.query.teamId || "default";
  const dir = join(CACHE_DIR, team);
  const filePath = join(dir, hash);