Mastering Lerna Monorepo For Storybook: A Complete Guide

10 min read 11-15- 2024

Mastering Lerna Monorepo for Storybook: A Complete Guide

When working on larger projects, managing dependencies and package versions can become a daunting task. Enter Lerna: a powerful tool designed to manage JavaScript projects with multiple packages in a monorepo structure. When coupled with Storybook, a popular tool for building UI components in isolation, you can create a highly efficient workflow for developing, testing, and documenting components. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore how to effectively use Lerna with Storybook, ensuring your monorepo is well-organized and easy to manage.

What is a Monorepo?

A monorepo is a single repository that houses multiple packages or projects, which can help streamline dependency management, improve collaboration among teams, and simplify the process of sharing code between applications. This approach is particularly beneficial for large-scale applications or when working on a suite of interconnected tools.

Benefits of Using Lerna in a Monorepo

Before diving into the practical steps of integrating Lerna with Storybook, let’s look at some of the key benefits of using Lerna in a monorepo setup:

Simplified Dependency Management: Lerna makes it easy to manage dependencies across various packages, allowing you to maintain a consistent version across your projects.
Parallel Task Execution: With Lerna, you can run scripts in parallel across multiple packages, significantly speeding up your build and test processes.
Easier Code Sharing: The monorepo structure inherently facilitates sharing components or utilities between projects, reducing duplication and enhancing maintainability.
Streamlined Development Workflow: Lerna's commands simplify common tasks such as bootstrapping new packages, publishing updates, and managing versioning.

Setting Up Your Lerna Monorepo

Step 1: Install Lerna

To get started, you will first need to install Lerna globally on your machine. You can do this using npm or yarn:

npm install --global lerna

yarn global add lerna

Step 2: Initialize Your Monorepo

Create a new directory for your monorepo and initialize it with Lerna. This command will set up a new package.json and create a lerna.json configuration file.

mkdir my-monorepo
cd my-monorepo
lerna init

After running the above command, your folder structure should look like this:

my-monorepo
├── packages
└── lerna.json

Step 3: Create Packages

Inside the packages folder, create individual folders for your packages. For example, you might have a ui-components package for your Storybook components and a utils package for shared utilities.

mkdir packages/ui-components
mkdir packages/utils

Inside each package, create a package.json file. Here’s an example for ui-components:

{
  "name": "@myorg/ui-components",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "storybook dev -p 6006",
    "build": "storybook build"
  }
}

Step 4: Bootstrapping Your Packages

Now that you’ve set up your packages, you can use Lerna to install dependencies and link local packages together.

lerna bootstrap

This command will install any external dependencies defined in your package.json files and symlink any local packages to allow for seamless development.

Integrating Storybook

Now that your monorepo is set up and ready, it’s time to integrate Storybook to manage your UI components effectively.

Step 1: Install Storybook

Navigate to your ui-components package and install Storybook:

cd packages/ui-components
npx sb init

This command initializes Storybook in your package, creating the necessary configuration files and directories.

Step 2: Configure Storybook

Open the .storybook/main.js file and make any necessary adjustments to the configuration. For example, you might want to include specific addons or customize the stories' file locations.

Here’s an example of how you might configure it:

module.exports = {
  stories: ['../src/**/*.stories.@(js|jsx|ts|tsx)'],
  addons: [
    '@storybook/addon-links',
    '@storybook/addon-essentials',
  ],
};

Step 3: Create Your First Component

Now, create a simple UI component within the src directory of your ui-components package. For instance, create a Button.js file:

import React from 'react';

const Button = ({ label }) => {
  return ;
};

export default Button;

Then, create a corresponding story for your Button component by adding a Button.stories.js file in the src directory:

import React from 'react';
import Button from './Button';

export default {
  title: 'UI/Button',
  component: Button,
};

const Template = (args) =>

Step 4: Run Storybook

With your component and story created, you can now run Storybook:

npm start

By default, Storybook runs on http://localhost:6006. Navigate to that URL to see your Button component rendered in the Storybook interface.

Step 5: Add More Components and Stories

Continue building out your UI component library by adding more components and their respective stories. Organizing your components into folders can help maintain clarity as your library grows.

Step 6: Running Linting and Tests

To ensure your code remains clean and functional, set up linting and testing scripts in your packages. For instance, in the ui-components package, you might add:

"scripts": {
  "lint": "eslint .",
  "test": "jest"
}

You can then run these scripts using Lerna:

lerna run lint
lerna run test

Publishing Your Packages

Once you have developed and tested your components, you may want to publish them to a package registry. Lerna simplifies the publishing process, allowing you to publish all packages with a single command.

Step 1: Versioning Your Packages

Before publishing, ensure that all packages are versioned appropriately. Lerna supports automatic versioning based on the changes made. You can run the following command to update the version numbers:

lerna version

Follow the prompts to specify the new versioning.

Step 2: Publish Your Packages

Once your versions are set, you can publish your packages to the npm registry:

lerna publish

This command will publish all packages that have changed since the last release. You’ll need to have an npm account and be logged in.

Conclusion

Leveraging Lerna with Storybook in a monorepo setup can significantly enhance your development workflow for UI components. Not only does it simplify package management, but it also encourages code reuse and fosters collaboration among team members. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can master the integration of Lerna and Storybook, leading to a more efficient and organized development process.

As you continue to work with Lerna and Storybook, you may find additional optimizations and best practices that suit your specific projects. Happy coding! 🎉