multirepo

Multirepo is a software development approach in which the components, services, or modules of a system are stored in separate version control repositories rather than in a single, central repository. This pattern is commonly used to support team autonomy, security, and modularity. It can apply to microservices, libraries, infrastructure as code, and configuration assets, and is often chosen when teams operate with distinct lifecycles or access controls.

Benefits include smaller, faster clones; clearer ownership; easier access control; and the ability to release and rollback parts of the system independently. It can also reduce blast radius for faulty changes and simplify dependency management for individual components.

However, multirepo also introduces coordination challenges. Cross-repository changes, consistent API contracts, and unified testing require additional tooling and governance. Dependency versioning, release coordination, and global search across repos can be more complex, and some operations may be less efficient.

Common practices to mitigate these issues include establishing clear ownership and interfaces, using semantic versioning and dependency pinning, automating cross-repo builds and tests, and adopting standardized tooling for coding conventions and CI pipelines. Some organizations use repository-level permissions, code reviews, and centralized documentation to enforce consistency.