Turborepo
GuidesContinuous Integration

GitHub Actions

The following example shows how to use Turborepo with GitHub Actions.

For a given root package.json:

./package.json
{
  "name": "my-turborepo",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "turbo run build",
    "test": "turbo run test"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "turbo": "latest"
  }
}

And a turbo.json:

./turbo.json
{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "outputs": [".next/**", "!.next/cache/**", "other-output-dirs/**"],
      "dependsOn": ["^build"]
    },
    "test": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"]
    }
  }
}

Create a file called .github/workflows/ci.yml in your repository with the following contents:

.github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI
 
on:
  push:
    branches: ["main"]
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize]
 
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build and Test
    timeout-minutes: 15
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    # To use Remote Caching, uncomment the next lines and follow the steps below.
    # env:
    #  TURBO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURBO_TOKEN }}
    #  TURBO_TEAM: ${{ vars.TURBO_TEAM }}
    #  TURBO_REMOTE_ONLY: true
 
    steps:
      - name: Check out code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 2
 
      - name: Setup Node.js environment
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: 'npm'
 
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install
 
      - name: Build
        run: npm run build
 
      - name: Test
        run: npm run test

Remote Caching

To use Remote Caching with GitHub Actions, add the following environment variables to your GitHub Actions workflow to make them available to your turbo commands.

  • TURBO_TOKEN - The Bearer token to access the Remote Cache
  • TURBO_TEAM - The account to which the monorepo belongs

To use Remote Caching, retrieve the team and token for the Remote Cache for your provider. In this example, we'll use Vercel Remote Cache.

Create a Scoped Access Token to your account in the Vercel Dashboard

Vercel Access Tokens

Copy the value to a safe place. You'll need it in a moment.

Go to your GitHub repository settings and click on the Secrets and then Actions tab. Create a new secret called TURBO_TOKEN and enter the value of your Scoped Access Token.

GitHub Secrets GitHub Secrets Create

Create a new repository variable (click the Variables tab) called TURBO_TEAM and enter the value of your team's Vercel URL without the vercel.com/. Using a repository variable rather than a secret will keep GitHub Actions from censoring your team name in log output.

GitHub Repository Variables

Your Team URL can be found inside your team's general project settings from the dashboard. If you're using a Hobby Plan, you can use your username. Your username can be found in your Vercel Personal Account Settings

Vercel Account Slug

At the top of your GitHub Actions workflow, provide the following environment variables to jobs that use turbo:

.github/workflows/ci.yml
# ...
 
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build and Test
    timeout-minutes: 15
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    # To use Turborepo Remote Caching, set the following environment variables for the job.
    env:
      TURBO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURBO_TOKEN }}
      TURBO_TEAM: ${{ vars.TURBO_TEAM }}
 
    steps:
      - name: Check out code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 2
    # ...

Caching with GitHub actions/cache

The following steps exemplify how you could use actions/cache to cache your monorepo artifacts on GitHub.

Supply a package.json script that will run tasks using Turbo.

Example package.json with a build script:

./package.json
{
  "name": "my-turborepo",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "turbo run build"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "turbo": "1.2.5"
  }
}

Configure your GitHub pipeline with a step which utilizes the actions/cache@v4 action before the build steps of your CI file.

  • Make sure that the path attribute set within the actions/cache action matches the output location above. In the example below, path was set to .turbo.
  • State the cache key for the current run under the key attribute. In the example below, we used a combination of the runner os and GitHub sha as the cache key.
  • State the desired cache prefix pattern under the restore-keys attribute. Make sure this pattern will remain valid for future ci runs. In the example below, we used the ${{ runner.os }}-turbo- as the cache key prefix pattern to search against. This allows us to hit the cache on any subsequent ci runs despite github.sha changing.

Example ci yaml with .turbo as chosen cache folder:

.github/workflows/ci.yml
  jobs:
    build:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
        - name: Check out code
          uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
        - name: Cache turbo build setup
          uses: actions/cache@v4
          with: 
            path: .turbo
            key: ${{ runner.os }}-turbo-${{ github.sha }}
            restore-keys: |
              ${{ runner.os }}-turbo-
 
        - name: Setup Node.js environment
          uses: actions/setup-node@v4
          with:
            node-version: 20
            cache: 'npm'
 
        - name: Install dependencies
          run: npm install
 
        - name: Build
          run: npm run build

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