Monorepos have become the standard for large-scale frontend development, but scaling them effectively requires careful architectural decisions. Having worked with monorepos supporting 50+ developers and multiple products, I'll share the patterns that actually work in production.

Workspace Structure and Dependency Management

The foundation of a scalable monorepo is a well-designed workspace structure:

monorepo/
    ├── apps/
    │   ├── web-app/                 # Main customer-facing app
    │   ├── admin-dashboard/         # Internal admin tool
    │   └── marketing-site/          # Public marketing site
    ├── packages/
    │   ├── ui/                      # Shared component library
    │   ├── utils/                   # Utility functions
    │   ├── hooks/                   # Custom React hooks
    │   ├── types/                   # Shared TypeScript types
    │   └── config/                  # Build and lint configurations
    ├── tools/
    │   ├── scripts/                 # Build and deployment scripts
    │   └── generators/              # Code generation templates
    └── package.json                 # Root package.json
    
    // Root package.json for workspace configuration
    {
        "name": "company-monorepo",
        "private": true,
        "workspaces": ["apps/*", "packages/*"],
        "scripts": {
            "build": "turbo run build",
            "dev": "turbo run dev --parallel",
            "test": "turbo run test",
            "lint": "turbo run lint"
        },
        "devDependencies": {
            "turbo": "^1.8.0",
            "typescript": "^4.9.0"
        }
    }

Advanced Turborepo Configuration

Leverage Turborepo's powerful caching and task orchestration:

// turbo.json
    {
        "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
        "pipeline": {
            "build": {
                "dependsOn": ["^build"],
                "outputs": ["dist/**", "build/**"],
                "env": ["NODE_ENV"]
            },
            "dev": {
                "cache": false,
                "persistent": true
            },
            "test": {
                "dependsOn": ["build"],
                "outputs": [],
                "env": ["TEST_ENV"]
            },
            "lint": {
                "dependsOn": ["^build"],
                "outputs": []
            },
            "type-check": {
                "dependsOn": ["^build"],
                "outputs": []
            }
        },
        "globalEnv": [
            "API_URL",
            "ENABLE_ANALYTICS"
        ]
    }
    
    // Environment-specific configurations
    const getTurboConfig = (environment) => ({
        build: {
            env: {
                NODE_ENV: environment,
                ...getEnvironmentVars(environment)
            }
        }
    });

Shared Tooling and Code Generation

Create consistent development experiences across the monorepo:

// packages/config/eslint-config-custom/index.js
    module.exports = {
        extends: [
            'eslint:recommended',
            '@typescript-eslint/recommended',
            'react-app',
            'react-app/jest'
        ],
        rules: {
            // Custom rules for the entire monorepo
            '@typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars': 'error',
            'react-hooks/exhaustive-deps': 'error'
        },
        overrides: [
            {
                files: ['**/*.test.*'],
                rules: {
                    // Test-specific rules
                }
            }
        ]
    };
    
    // Plop templates for consistent component generation
    export const componentGenerator = {
        description: 'Create a new component',
        prompts: [
            {
                type: 'input',
                name: 'name',
                message: 'Component name:'
            },
            {
                type: 'confirm',
                name: 'withTests',
                message: 'Include test files?',
                default: true
            }
        ],
        actions: (data) => {
            const actions = [
                {
                    type: 'add',
                    path: 'packages/ui/src/{{pascalCase name}}/index.ts',
                    templateFile: 'templates/component/index.ts.hbs'
                },
                // ... more template actions
            ];
            
            return data.withTests ? [...actions, testAction] : actions;
        }
    };

Dependency Graph and Build Optimization

Manage dependencies and build order efficiently:

// tools/scripts/analyze-deps.js
    const analyzeDependencies = () => {
        const graph = {};
        
        // Build dependency graph
        workspaces.forEach(workspace => {
            graph[workspace.name] = {
                dependencies: getWorkspaceDeps(workspace),
                dependents: getWorkspaceDependents(workspace.name)
            };
        });
        
        return {
            findCircularDependencies: () => {
                // Implementation to detect circular deps
            },
            optimizeBuildOrder: () => {
                // Topological sort for optimal build order
            },
            visualize: () => {
                // Generate visual dependency graph
            }
        };
    };
    
    // Advanced caching strategy
    const cacheStrategy = {
        key: (task, source) => {
            // Custom cache key based on task and source changes
            return `${task}-${hashSource(source)}`;
        },
        restore: (key) => {
            // Intelligent cache restoration
        },
        shouldCache: (task) => {
            // Skip cache for certain tasks or conditions
            return !task.includes('dev');
        }
    };

A well-architected monorepo is a force multiplier for development teams. These patterns, refined through years of scaling frontend architecture, will help you build a foundation that supports rapid iteration, consistent quality, and team autonomy while maintaining architectural integrity.