pnpm 9 Workspaces: The Best Monorepo Package Manager in 2026

# pnpm-workspace.yaml (root)
packages:
  - "apps/*"
  - "packages/*"

// package.json (root)
{
  "name": "my-monorepo",
  "private": true,
  "engines": { "node": ">=20.9.0", "pnpm": ">=9" }
}

# pnpm-workspace.yaml
packages:
  - "apps/*"
  - "packages/*"

catalog:
  react: "^19.0.0"
  react-dom: "^19.0.0"
  typescript: "^5.5.0"
  zod: "^3.23.0"

// apps/web/package.json
{
  "dependencies": {
    "react": "catalog:",
    "react-dom": "catalog:"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "typescript": "catalog:"
  }
}

# Install all workspace dependencies
pnpm install

# Add a dependency to a specific package
pnpm --filter web add react-query

# Add a shared devDependency to the root
pnpm add -D -w typescript

# Run build in all packages
pnpm -r run build

# Run build in all packages in dependency order
pnpm -r --workspace-concurrency=4 run build

# Run only in packages with changes (combine with Turborepo)
pnpm --filter "...[origin/main]" run build

# Run in a specific package
pnpm --filter web run dev

# Create a patch
pnpm patch some-package@1.2.3

# Edit the files in the temp directory it creates
# Then apply the patch
pnpm patch-commit /path/to/temp-dir

patchedDependencies:
  some-package@1.2.3: patches/some-package@1.2.3.patch

FROM node:22-alpine AS base
RUN npm install -g pnpm@9

FROM base AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
RUN pnpm --filter web build

FROM base AS runner
WORKDIR /app
# Deploy only web's production deps  -  no dev deps, no other packages
COPY --from=builder /app .
RUN pnpm deploy --filter=web --prod /deploy/web

FROM node:22-alpine AS final
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=runner /deploy/web .
COPY --from=builder /app/apps/web/.next .next
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

# .npmrc
hoist=false          # default  -  strict (recommended)
# hoist=true         # legacy  -  matches npm/yarn behavior
shamefully-hoist=false