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Repository Management

Single Repository (Monorepo)

Pros:
  • Knowledge Sharing
  • Common styles and themes
  • Easier for team members to switch projects
  • Easier to track dependencies between projects
    • Example: I don't have to find the repository where a particular service lives
  • Engineers can see work and progress of other people
  • Engineers are not siloed
Cons:
  • Possibility of a lot of noise/overheads
Examples:
  • Angular
  • Babel
  • Ember
  • Jest
  • React
Tools:
  • For JavaScript/Node.js: Lerna
Alternatives:
  • Consider having fewer repos, but larger
Examples:
  • Facebook
    • Actually has many repos, but few (say less than 10)
  • Google
    • One huge repository built by Google
  • Twitter

Multiple Repositories (Multirepo)

Pros:
  • Independent teams and styles
Cons:
  • Problems with coordination
  • Limits knowledge sharing across repositories
  • Context switching between work across repositories
  • Hard to enforce styles
  • Smaller repos, but many
  • Engineers can be siloed
  • Hard to track depedency management
Common in:
  • Microservices
  • FaaS / Serverless
Examples:
  • Amazon
  • Skype
Also known as:
  • Polyrepo

Comparison Matrix (Software Architectures vs Repository Styles)

Monolithic
Non Monolithic
Monorepo
Option A
Option B
Multirepo
Option C
Option D

A: Monolithic and Monorepo

Pros:
  • Knowledge sharing

B: Non Monolithic and Monorepo

C: Monolithic and Multirepo

D: Non Monolithic and Multirepo

Cons:
  • Increased operaitonal complexity and cognitive load