The Sultry Pull of Monorepo vs. Polyrepo: Workflow Friction Compared
Every development team eventually faces the question: should we put everything in one giant repository or split into many small ones? The answer is rarely about technical purity—it's about workflow friction. Monorepos promise unified versioning and atomic changes; polyrepos offer team autonomy and focused builds. But the daily reality involves pipeline bottlenecks, broken dependencies, and code review delays that can make either model painful. This guide compares the two approaches through the lens of workflow friction, helping you decide which trade-offs your team can live with. Why This Decision Matters Now The repository structure you choose ripples through every part of your development lifecycle. It affects how long developers wait for builds, how often integrations break, and how much context they need to keep in their heads.