Turbo Pipeline

Key takeaways

• The Turbo pipeline is a monorepo's execution contract, deciding which tasks run, in what order, what is cached, and which env vars affect correctness.
• Task layers carry different cache expectations: lint and typecheck are cacheable, test is cacheable when deterministic, build needs explicit outputs, and dev and deploy are not cacheable.
• Declare task dependencies (not just names), list build outputs explicitly, and treat env vars as part of the cache key when they affect output.
• Use --affected for PR feedback while keeping full verification for release gates, and keep the default cache directory to preserve Git worktree cache sharing.
• When CI fails, ask whether the cause is code, dependency order, cache config, environment leakage, or a nondeterministic test; treat repeated flakiness as a platform problem.

The pipeline is the execution contract of a monorepo. It decides which tasks run, in what order, which outputs are cached, and which environment variables affect correctness.

Task Layers

Pipeline Rules

• Define dependencies between tasks, not only task names.
• List build outputs explicitly so cache restore is reliable.
• Treat environment variables as part of the cache key when they affect output.
• Keep long-running development tasks outside cached CI paths.
• Use --affected for PR feedback and keep full verification for release gates.
• Keep the default cache directory unless you intentionally want to disable Git worktree cache sharing.
• Review Turborepo 2.9 deprecations before adopting future 3.0 behavior.

Common Pattern

Failure Review

When a pipeline fails, ask whether the problem is code, dependency order, cache configuration, environment leakage, or a nondeterministic test. Treat repeated flaky CI as a product problem for the platform team.