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Monorepos at Gjensidige

A recent question from one of our frontend developers sparked a useful discussion: How do we actually approach monorepos at Gjensidige, and what do we recommend? The short answer: we don’t have strict internal guidelines yet, but we do have clear patterns, preferences, and plenty of experience.

Start Simple: Workspaces Usually Go a Long Way

For most cases, npm workspaces (or pnpm/bun/yarn equivalents) are more than enough. Each package gets its own package.json, dependencies can be shared at the root, and local packages link cleanly. This is exactly how builders-core is structured today.

If you’re not publishing packages to a registry, you rarely need anything more complex than npm or bun. pnpm is also a solid choice if you prefer it.

Heavier Tooling: Only When You Truly Need It

We’ve tried the bigger frameworks, and our experience is mixed:

  • Nx – powerful but extremely heavy; also requires a paid license for companies our size.

  • Lerna – used in core today, but feels bloated.

  • Lerna‑Lite – much more promising; pick only the modules you need.

  • Turborepo – fast and convenient, but we’re considering moving away from it.

These tools only make sense when you have genuinely complex dependency graphs, coordinated releases, or multi‑stage build pipelines. Otherwise, they add more machinery than value.

What Works for Us Today

Most teams succeed with a simple workspace setup. The more advanced tools are reserved for repos with many interdependent packages or complicated CI/CD needs. In practice, the choice depends on how complex your monorepo actually is — not on what’s trendy.

Examples of Monorepos in Gjensidige

We already run several monorepos across the organization:

These have grown organically based on team needs rather than a single mandated structure.

Key Takeaways

  • Start with workspaces — they solve most problems.

  • Use Lerna‑Lite or Turborepo only if your repo is genuinely complex.

  • Avoid heavy tools like Nx unless absolutely necessary.

  • Keep CI/CD simple and avoid over‑engineering.

  • Document your structure early, even informally.

We don’t have a formal monorepo standard yet, but our collective experience points in a clear direction: keep it lightweight unless your project forces you to scale up.