tools for monorepos?

[kabaros]

Just wondering what people experiences around monorepos are - What tools you used? What recommendations and experiences you have?

Problem: semantic-release does not have native support for monorepos. To get around the limitation, we have created our own wrappers around semantic-release. While these served us well, there are issues:

• They lack features with modern tools, i..e. control over version bumps (bumping workspaces together or separately),
• Dealing with workspaces is hacky - we are stuck with yarn 1 workspaces as part of that legacy, and can't use many of the core tools to deal with workspaces.
• They are yet one extra thing to maintain - for example, we were stuck with a semantic-release version for six years ago, and it wasn't easy to get it updated.
• The way our wrappers were implemented sacrificed the simplicity of semantic-release for a normal repo by adding a complex setup that supports monorepos as well - this makes it harder to do things that would have been much easier for apps and normal repos, like using shareable configs and publishing preview releases from branches other than alpha and beta for testing) ...

These wrappers were a powerful solution at at the time, but there are other more mature alternatives nowadays that we

On the other hand, semantic-release has its merits. For example, the tight integration with conventional commits which is something we're used to and ideally would like to keep - this is not necessarily the approach that newer tools follow.

Why monorepos in the first place?: To bring together many libraries (and maybe apps in the future) across our GitHub organisation that are conceptually related and typically worked on together, like app-platform or CLI. We already use monorepos for few of these, just in a way that could be improved.

PS: We used changesets for a new monorepo but it's a bit of a shift in mentality from semantic-release, hence the question here to hear about people's experiences.

Some resources:

• https://brianschiller.com/blog/2023/09/18/changesets-vs-semantic-release/
• Streamline changeset generation with conventional commit support changesets/changesets#862
• https://monorepo.tools/

Some of the tools

(courtesy of chatgpt)

Tool	Company / Primary Maintainer	Monorepo Native?	Auto Versioning	Changelog	Suitable Size	Commit Message Requirements	Difficulty Level	Notes
Changesets	Community / Open‑source maintainers	✅ Yes	⚠️ Semi‑automated (manual changesets)	✅ Yes	Small → Large	None (manual changeset files)	⭐ Easy	Popular for JS/TS repos; human‑reviewable version bumps.
Nx	Nrwl	✅ Yes	Partial (built-in release features)	Partial	Small → Large	Optional	⭐ Easy	Highly popular JS/TS build & monorepo tool; good DX and scaling.
Semantic Release	Community / Open‑source maintainers	⚠️ Via plugins	✅ Fully automated	✅ Yes	Small → Large	Strict Conventional Commits	⭐⭐ Medium	Best for automated release pipelines when commit discipline is enforced.
Lerna	Nrwl	✅ Yes	Optional	Optional	Small → Medium	Optional / depends on commit strategy	⭐⭐ Medium	Legacy JS monorepo tool; less modern ergonomics than newer tools.
Turborepo	Vercel	✅ Yes (workspace-based)	Optional / via external tool	Optional	Small → Large	Depends on tooling you add	⭐⭐ Medium	Good for fast builds; often combined with release tooling.
Release It!	Community / Open‑source maintainers	❌ No	Optional	Optional	Small → Medium	Conventional Commits optional	⭐⭐ Medium	Flexible, general-purpose release tool; not monorepo-native.
Moon	moonrepo (open-source)	⚠️ Yes (build/task runner)	❌ No built-in versioning	❌ No	Medium → Large	None	⭐⭐ Medium	A build/task runner — not a versioning tool; usually paired with Changesets or similar.
Rush + Beachball	Microsoft	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	Medium → Very Large	Encouraged but depends on config	⭐⭐⭐ Hard	Often used in large-scale JS/TS monorepos with many packages.

Semantic Release Step	Changesets Equivalent	Notes / Key Differences / GitHub Action Considerations
Commit code using Conventional Commits	Commit normally, then run changeset add	Changesets does not require Conventional Commits, but you can still follow them. The GitHub Action can run changeset version automatically without manual intervention.
CI auto-detects version bumps	changeset version via GitHub Action	The changesets/action can automatically create a commit with updated package versions and changelog whenever changesets are merged to main, mimicking Semantic Release’s auto-bump behavior.
Semantic Release generates changelog	Changesets generates changelog during changeset version	The Action ensures the changelog updates are committed automatically; you can still review in PR if desired.
CI commits version bump + changelog automatically	✅ Handled by GitHub Action	Using changesets/action@v1 you can fully automate committing version bumps and changelog updates, similar to Semantic Release.
Semantic Release publishes packages automatically	changeset publish via GitHub Action	The Action can run changeset publish on tags or after versioning, so your publish step is automated in CI like Semantic Release.
CI auto-tags releases	✅ Handled by GitHub Action	Tags are created automatically during changeset publish.
Skip release / handle pre-releases	Pre-releases or skipped changesets	Pre-release versions can be specified in the changeset, and the Action respects them. You can also skip publishing certain changesets.
Monorepo support with plugins	✅ Built-in Changesets	Works natively in monorepos; Action integrates smoothly to automate versioning and publishing per package.