colonyJS is a monorepo. A monorepo is simply a common repository for all npm modules of a certain scope, sharing common modules and development environments. You can learn more about monorepos here.
We're using yarn workspaces and lerna to manage this monorepo. We're also using flow typing.
The develop branch is working towards supporting the latest version of the colonyNetwork smart contracts. Fixes and maintenance to support the latest version should be merged into the develop branch.
The master branch supports the glider-rc.1 release of the colonyNetwork smart contracts. Hot fixes to support this release should be merged into the master branch, which will then be merged into develop.
First, you need to activate yarn workspaces:
yarn config set workspaces-experimental true
Next, you need to install package dependencies:
yarn
Note: Running yarn in the root directory will install all of the required dependencies, including the dependencies within packages, which will also link interdependencies between packages.
Add a dependency to a local package:
cd packages/[local_package]
yarn add [remote_package]
We're using lerna to publish packages to npm and to run root commands that simplify how we manage all of the packages within the repository.
Run a command in all packages:
lerna run [command]
Note: For example, running lerna run build in the root directory will run the build script in each subpackage. More information about how this works can be found here.
Publish updated packages to npm:
lerna publish
Note: Running lerna publish will guide you through the publish process.
Run a command for a single package:
lerna run --scope=@colony/my-package-name [command]
Note: Running lerna run with the --scope option will ensure the command within the package will include the necessary dependencies that have been installed in the root directory and linked to the individual package.
See Publishing Releases for publishing workflow.