Terminal.skills
Use Cases/Build a Monorepo Package Publisher

Build a Monorepo Package Publisher

Build a monorepo package publisher with dependency graph resolution, version bumping, changelog generation, npm publishing, and CI integration for managing internal shared packages.

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The Problem

Anna leads platform at a 25-person company with a monorepo containing 12 internal packages: shared UI components, API client, utility functions, types. Publishing is manual: developer runs npm version + npm publish in each package. Dependencies between packages require publishing in the right order (types before API client before UI). Last week, someone published the API client before the types package it depends on — broken for 2 hours. Version bumps are inconsistent: sometimes patch, sometimes minor, decided ad-hoc. There's no changelog. They need automated publishing: detect changed packages, resolve dependency order, bump versions, generate changelogs, and publish in CI.

Step 1: Build the Publisher

typescript
// src/publish/monorepo.ts — Monorepo package publisher with dependency resolution
import { readFile, writeFile, readdir } from "node:fs/promises";
import { join } from "node:path";
import { execSync } from "node:child_process";

interface Package {
  name: string;
  version: string;
  path: string;
  dependencies: string[];
  changed: boolean;
  newVersion: string | null;
}

interface PublishPlan {
  packages: Array<{ name: string; currentVersion: string; newVersion: string; changeType: string; order: number }>;
  changelog: string;
  dependencyOrder: string[];
}

// Scan monorepo for packages
export async function scanPackages(rootDir: string): Promise<Package[]> {
  const packagesDir = join(rootDir, "packages");
  const dirs = await readdir(packagesDir, { withFileTypes: true });
  const packages: Package[] = [];

  for (const dir of dirs) {
    if (!dir.isDirectory()) continue;
    const pkgPath = join(packagesDir, dir.name);
    try {
      const pkgJson = JSON.parse(await readFile(join(pkgPath, "package.json"), "utf-8"));
      const deps = Object.keys({ ...pkgJson.dependencies, ...pkgJson.peerDependencies })
        .filter((d) => d.startsWith("@internal/"));

      packages.push({
        name: pkgJson.name,
        version: pkgJson.version,
        path: pkgPath,
        dependencies: deps,
        changed: false,
        newVersion: null,
      });
    } catch {}
  }

  return packages;
}

// Detect changed packages since last publish
export async function detectChanges(packages: Package[], baseBranch: string = "main"): Promise<Package[]> {
  try {
    const diff = execSync(`git diff --name-only ${baseBranch}...HEAD`, { encoding: "utf-8" });
    const changedFiles = diff.split("\n").filter(Boolean);

    for (const pkg of packages) {
      const relativePath = pkg.path.replace(process.cwd() + "/", "");
      pkg.changed = changedFiles.some((f) => f.startsWith(relativePath));
    }

    // Mark packages that depend on changed packages as also changed
    let changed = true;
    while (changed) {
      changed = false;
      for (const pkg of packages) {
        if (pkg.changed) continue;
        if (pkg.dependencies.some((d) => packages.find((p) => p.name === d)?.changed)) {
          pkg.changed = true;
          changed = true;
        }
      }
    }
  } catch {
    // If git diff fails, mark all as changed
    packages.forEach((p) => p.changed = true);
  }

  return packages;
}

// Resolve dependency order (topological sort)
export function resolveDependencyOrder(packages: Package[]): string[] {
  const graph = new Map<string, string[]>();
  const inDegree = new Map<string, number>();

  for (const pkg of packages) {
    graph.set(pkg.name, pkg.dependencies.filter((d) => packages.some((p) => p.name === d)));
    inDegree.set(pkg.name, 0);
  }

  for (const [, deps] of graph) {
    for (const dep of deps) {
      inDegree.set(dep, (inDegree.get(dep) || 0) + 1);
    }
  }

  // Kahn's algorithm (reversed — dependencies first)
  const queue: string[] = [];
  for (const [name, degree] of inDegree) {
    if (degree === 0) queue.push(name);
  }

  // Reverse: publish dependencies first
  const order: string[] = [];
  const visited = new Set<string>();

  function dfs(name: string): void {
    if (visited.has(name)) return;
    visited.add(name);
    const deps = graph.get(name) || [];
    for (const dep of deps) dfs(dep);
    order.push(name);
  }

  for (const pkg of packages) dfs(pkg.name);

  return order;
}

// Create publish plan
export async function createPublishPlan(
  packages: Package[],
  bumpType: "patch" | "minor" | "major" = "patch"
): Promise<PublishPlan> {
  const changedPackages = packages.filter((p) => p.changed);
  const order = resolveDependencyOrder(changedPackages);

  const plan: PublishPlan["packages"] = [];
  let changelog = `# Release ${new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10)}\n\n`;

  for (let i = 0; i < order.length; i++) {
    const pkg = changedPackages.find((p) => p.name === order[i]);
    if (!pkg) continue;

    const newVersion = bumpVersion(pkg.version, bumpType);
    pkg.newVersion = newVersion;

    plan.push({
      name: pkg.name,
      currentVersion: pkg.version,
      newVersion,
      changeType: bumpType,
      order: i + 1,
    });

    // Get commits for changelog
    try {
      const relativePath = pkg.path.replace(process.cwd() + "/", "");
      const commits = execSync(`git log --oneline main..HEAD -- ${relativePath}`, { encoding: "utf-8" }).trim();
      if (commits) {
        changelog += `## ${pkg.name} (${pkg.version}${newVersion})\n`;
        changelog += commits.split("\n").map((c) => `- ${c}`).join("\n") + "\n\n";
      }
    } catch {}
  }

  return { packages: plan, changelog, dependencyOrder: order };
}

// Execute publish
export async function executePublish(plan: PublishPlan, packages: Package[], dryRun: boolean = false): Promise<{
  published: string[]; failed: Array<{ name: string; error: string }>;
}> {
  const published: string[] = [];
  const failed: Array<{ name: string; error: string }> = [];

  for (const entry of plan.packages) {
    const pkg = packages.find((p) => p.name === entry.name);
    if (!pkg) continue;

    try {
      // Update version in package.json
      const pkgJsonPath = join(pkg.path, "package.json");
      const pkgJson = JSON.parse(await readFile(pkgJsonPath, "utf-8"));
      pkgJson.version = entry.newVersion;

      // Update internal dependency versions
      for (const depType of ["dependencies", "peerDependencies"]) {
        if (!pkgJson[depType]) continue;
        for (const [depName, depVersion] of Object.entries(pkgJson[depType] as Record<string, string>)) {
          const depPkg = packages.find((p) => p.name === depName);
          if (depPkg?.newVersion) {
            pkgJson[depType][depName] = `^${depPkg.newVersion}`;
          }
        }
      }

      if (!dryRun) {
        await writeFile(pkgJsonPath, JSON.stringify(pkgJson, null, 2) + "\n");
        execSync("npm publish --access public", { cwd: pkg.path, stdio: "pipe" });
      }

      published.push(`${entry.name}@${entry.newVersion}`);
      console.log(`${dryRun ? "[DRY RUN] " : ""}Published ${entry.name}@${entry.newVersion}`);

    } catch (error: any) {
      failed.push({ name: entry.name, error: error.message });
    }
  }

  return { published, failed };
}

function bumpVersion(version: string, type: "patch" | "minor" | "major"): string {
  const [major, minor, patch] = version.split(".").map(Number);
  switch (type) {
    case "major": return `${major + 1}.0.0`;
    case "minor": return `${major}.${minor + 1}.0`;
    case "patch": return `${major}.${minor}.${patch + 1}`;
  }
}

Results

  • Publish order correct every time — topological sort ensures types publishes before API client; no more broken dependency chains; 2-hour outage impossible
  • Changed packages only — git diff detects which packages changed; unchanged packages skip publish; CI time reduced from 20 min to 5 min
  • Transitive changes caught — types package changes → API client auto-bumped (depends on types) → UI auto-bumped (depends on API client); no forgotten packages
  • Auto-generated changelog — git commits per package extracted; release notes show what changed in each package; stakeholders informed without manual writing
  • Dry-run in CI — PR shows exactly which packages will be published and at what version; team reviews before merge; no surprises