pnpm-isolate

pnpm-isolate reduces a pnpm workspace to just the package you want to build and the workspace packages it depends on.

It is mainly meant for temporary build steps, especially Docker.

By default it rewrites both pnpm-lock.yaml and pnpm-workspace.yaml.

Usage

Usually you run it with npx:

npx pnpm-isolate <selector...> [options]

Examples:

npx pnpm-isolate ./app
npx pnpm-isolate @scope/app
npx pnpm-isolate ./app ./common
npx pnpm-isolate ./app --prod
npx pnpm-isolate ./app --dry-run
npx pnpm-isolate ./app --output pnpm-lock.isolated.yaml --workspace-output pnpm-workspace.isolated.yaml

What it does

• keeps the selected workspace package
• keeps any workspace packages it depends on
• rewrites pnpm-lock.yaml
• rewrites pnpm-workspace.yaml by default
• can keep or drop the root importer (.)
• can strip importer devDependencies

Options

--root <path>                 Workspace root directory. Default: nearest pnpm workspace
--output, -o <path>           Output lockfile path. Default: pnpm-lock.yaml
--workspace-output, -w <path> Output workspace manifest path. Default: pnpm-workspace.yaml
--no-prune-workspace          Do not rewrite pnpm-workspace.yaml
--no-keep-root                Do not keep the root importer (`.`)
--prod, -p                    Keep only production importer dependencies
--dry-run                     Show what would be kept without writing files
--help                        Show help

Selectors

Use path selectors like ./app when you mean a workspace path.

Package selectors also work, for example @scope/app.

If a selector does not already contain ..., pnpm-isolate adds it automatically so dependencies are included.

Typical flow

npx pnpm-isolate ./app
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm --filter ./app build

If you want to inspect the result first:

npx pnpm-isolate ./app --dry-run

Or write to separate files:

npx pnpm-isolate ./app --output pnpm-lock.isolated.yaml --workspace-output pnpm-workspace.isolated.yaml

Important

This tool is meant for temporary build steps.

It rewrites your workspace files by default. If that is not what you want, use --no-prune-workspace and or write to separate output files first.