How to use GSD in a monorepo?

[patrickiel]

I'm working in a monorepo with the following structure:

App/
├── frontend/
└── backend/

I often need to switch between the full app scope, frontend only, or backend only.

Since the application is getting quite large, I prefer using subfolders to keep things manageable. I tried initializing GSD in all three folders (root, frontend, and backend), but I'm running into conflicts and issues.

My questions:

1. Should I initialize a GSD project at every folder level?
2. What is the best practice for handling "scoped" development (e.g., just working on the API) versus "full-stack" development (e.g., a feature requiring both UI and API changes) using GSD?

[carwei]

I just added it to ´root´ (App in your case), but I've just played around with it a bit. No problems so far. What do you think might be an issue?

[patrickiel]

Wouldn't it be a problem if I always have the full scope? For just fixing a ui bug I don't want to have the backend in my scope.

[carwei]

With good context engineering, it won't matter. I think that's the point of you clarifying what you want, then the research/plan phases. To know what is relevant and what is not. Just tell it what you think is relevant, if you already know it.

[trek-e]

For monorepos, v1.31.0 adds two relevant features:

1. GSD_PROJECT env var (PR feat: GSD_PROJECT env var for multi-project workspaces #1484, approved) — Set GSD_PROJECT=frontend to point GSD at a specific .planning/ directory within your monorepo.

2. /gsd:workstreams — Manage parallel work across frontend/backend with namespace isolation.

For your App/frontend/ + App/backend/ structure, the recommended approach is to initialize GSD at the root and use workstreams or the project_code config to namespace phases.

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