Mono Repo Issue: pnpm installs all workspace projects even when a specific path is set

[dwainbrowne]

What versions & operating system are you using?

📝 Description

When deploying a Worker from a pnpm monorepo, Cloudflare always installs dependencies for all workspace projects (Scope: all 26 workspace projects) — even when a specific path is configured in the dashboard (e.g. /docs).

This results in Cloudflare installing unrelated projects before the actual build starts, often leading to failed builds when other workspaces use outdated or incompatible dependencies (e.g. node-sass@4.14.1 with Node 22).

This behavior happens before the build command executes, during Cloudflare’s environment initialization, and cannot be overridden using .cfignore or .cloudflare/project.toml.

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⚙️ Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a monorepo using pnpm-workspace.yaml with multiple workspaces (e.g. apps/, api/, docs/).
2. Add a Worker or Pages project inside /docs with its own package.json.
3. Configure Cloudflare’s Git integration:
   • Build command: pnpm install && pnpm run build
   • Path: /docs
4. Trigger a deploy.

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🧾 Expected Behavior

Only the dependencies for the configured build path (/docs) should be installed.

✅ Example (expected):
Installing project dependencies: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
Scope: 1 workspace project

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❌ Actual Behavior

Cloudflare installs all workspace projects at the root level before running the build command.

Observed log:
Installing project dependencies: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
Scope: all 26 workspace projects

This causes unrelated workspaces (such as older Nuxt 2 apps) to break deployment with dependency error

node-sass install: HTTP error 404 Not Found
node-sass postinstall: Build failed with error code: 1
Failed: error occurred while installing tools or dependencies

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🧠 Impact

• Greatly increases build time (installs every package in the monorepo).
• Causes builds to fail if unrelated projects have incompatible dependencies.
• Prevents isolated monorepo project deployments from working correctly with Cloudflare’s automatic builder.

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💻 Environment

Setting	Value
Cloudflare	Workers (Build + Git Integration)
pnpm	8.15.0
Node	22.16.0
Build Path	/docs
Build Command	pnpm install && pnpm run build
Detected Workspaces	26

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✅ Suggested Fix

• Respect the configured Path for dependency installation.
• Skip workspace-wide installation when .cfignore or .cloudflare/project.toml restricts the build context.
• Optionally provide a setting to disable automatic root-level installs for monorepos.

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Summary:
This issue makes Cloudflare unusable for pnpm-based monorepos when unrelated workspaces contain incompatible dependencies. The build system should respect the deployment path and isolate dependency installation accordingly.

Please provide a link to a minimal reproduction

No response

Describe the Bug

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📄 Logs (Excerpt)

2025-10-10T08:28:32.288Z Installing project dependencies: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
2025-10-10T08:28:36.896Z Scope: all 26 workspace projects
2025-10-10T08:30:27.059Z ELIFECYCLE Command failed with exit code 1.
2025-10-10T08:30:27.171Z Failed: error occurred while installing tools or dependencies

Please provide any relevant error logs

04:28:16.682	Initializing build environment...
04:28:22.589	Success: Finished initializing build environment
04:28:23.508	Cloning repository...
04:28:31.219	Detected the following tools from environment: pnpm@8.15.0, nodejs@22.16.0
04:28:32.288	Installing project dependencies: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
04:28:36.896	Scope: all 26 workspace projects
04:28:37.169	.. | Progress: resolved 1, reused 0, downloaded 0, added 0
04:28:37.420	.. | +3762 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
04:28:38.172	.. | Progress: resolved 3762, reused 0, downloaded 26, added 23
04:28:39.171	.. | Progress: resolved 3762, reused 0, downloaded 175, added 175

[penalosa]

Thanks for raising this. This is not an issue with the Cloudflare platform or the Workers builds product—it's just how pnpm works. Running pnpm install from anywhere in a monorepo will install all dependencies from all workspaces.

[jclanoe]

@dwainbrowne The following worked for me:

1. Setting this variable in the build settings:

SKIP_DEPENDENCY_INSTALL=true

2. Changing the build command:

// Before
pnpm run build

// After
pnpm install --filter=@myworkspace/myproject... --frozen-lockfile && pnpm run build