Monorepos on Vercel

Vercel auto-detects monorepo tools (Turborepo, Nx) and workspace managers (pnpm, Yarn, npm). Each project in the monorepo gets its own Vercel project, linked via vercel link --repo.

Quick Start

vercel link --repo    # link the whole repo
vercel pull           # pull env vars
vc dev                # local development
vercel deploy         # deploy

Linking

Use vercel link --repo to create .vercel/repo.json, which maps directories to Vercel projects:

{
  "orgId": "org_xxxxx",
  "projects": [
    { "id": "prj_xxxxx", "name": "web", "directory": "apps/web" },
    { "id": "prj_yyyyy", "name": "api", "directory": "apps/api" }
  ]
}

Running from a project subdirectory (e.g., apps/web/) skips the "which project?" prompt.

Root Directory

Set rootDirectory in vercel.json when your app isn't at the repo root:

{
  "rootDirectory": "apps/api"
}

Turborepo

Turborepo requires an explicit build task. Define it in turbo.json:

{
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "env": ["VERCEL"],
      "outputs": [".next/**", "!.next/cache/**", ".vercel/output/**", "dist/**"]
    }
  }
}

Vercel automatically generates the right build command — you don't need to configure it. If you need a manual override in vercel.json:

{
  "buildCommand": "turbo run build --filter={packages/my-app}..."
}

turbo-ignore

Vercel auto-sets npx turbo-ignore as the "Ignored Build Step" command, which skips builds when a project's dependencies haven't changed.

Nx

Nx requires a build target. Define it in nx.json:

{
  "targetDefaults": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"]
    }
  }
}

Example: Turborepo + pnpm + Hono

root/
├── turbo.json
├── package.json
├── pnpm-workspace.yaml
├── vercel.json
├── apps/
│   └── api/
│       ├── package.json
│       └── server.ts
└── packages/
    └── shared/
        ├── package.json
        └── src/index.ts

pnpm-workspace.yaml:

packages:
  - 'apps/*'
  - 'packages/*'

vercel.json:

{
  "rootDirectory": "apps/api"
}

apps/api/server.ts:

import { Hono } from 'hono';
import { greet } from '@repo/shared';

const app = new Hono();
app.get('/', c => c.text(greet('world')));

export default app;

Anti-Patterns

• Using vercel link instead of vercel link --repo: Creates project.json which only tracks one project. Use --repo for monorepos.
• Missing build task in turbo.json/nx.json: Vercel requires an explicit build task. Without it, the build fails.
• Adding a build script to package.json for transpilation: Vercel handles TypeScript compilation. The turbo.json build task is for orchestration, not transpilation.
• Linking while on the wrong team: Use vercel whoami to check, vercel teams switch to change.