Monorepo Cleanup: Removing Redundant Backend Directory

In this article, we'll walk you through the process of removing a redundant apps/backend/ directory within a monorepo. This cleanup streamlines the project structure, reduces confusion, and ensures a more maintainable codebase. We'll cover the context, goals, approach, and verification steps involved in this task. If you're managing a monorepo, especially one using Nx, this guide will provide a clear and concise approach to decluttering your project.

Context: Understanding the Redundancy

Our monorepo currently contains two directories that seemingly serve backend purposes: apps/api/ and apps/backend/. However, a closer examination reveals a critical distinction:

• apps/api/: This directory houses a fully configured and functional NestJS application. It's the core of our backend services, complete with all necessary setups and implementations.
• apps/backend/: This directory is essentially an empty placeholder. It contains only the basic directory structure, lacking any actual implementation or functional code. It's a skeleton without a body.

Given this scenario, it's clear that all backend functionality is intended to reside within apps/api/. The presence of an empty apps/backend/ directory serves no purpose and can lead to confusion among developers. Therefore, its removal is a logical step towards a cleaner and more efficient monorepo structure.

Having a streamlined directory structure is crucial for maintaining a healthy monorepo. A clear and concise structure reduces the cognitive load on developers, making it easier to navigate the codebase and understand the project's architecture. In our case, the redundant apps/backend/ directory introduces unnecessary complexity. Removing it eliminates potential confusion and ensures that developers focus their efforts on the functional apps/api/ directory. Moreover, a cleaner structure facilitates onboarding new team members and reduces the risk of accidental modifications in the wrong location. By consolidating backend functionalities in a single directory, we promote clarity and maintainability across the entire project.

Goals: Streamlining the Monorepo

The primary goal is to eliminate the unnecessary apps/backend/ directory, thereby simplifying the monorepo's structure and improving overall maintainability. This overarching goal can be broken down into the following specific objectives:

1. Remove the redundant apps/backend/ directory: This is the core task. We'll physically delete the directory from the monorepo.
2. Update all documentation references: To avoid confusion, we need to ensure that all documentation, including guides, architectural diagrams, and onboarding materials, no longer references the apps/backend/ directory.
3. Simplify the monorepo structure: By removing the empty directory, we make the project layout more intuitive and easier to understand.

Achieving these goals will lead to a cleaner, more organized monorepo, which in turn will improve developer productivity and reduce the risk of errors.

The goals of this cleanup extend beyond simply deleting a directory. They encompass the broader objective of enhancing the developer experience and ensuring the long-term health of the monorepo. Updating documentation is paramount to prevent future confusion and maintain consistency across the project. A streamlined structure not only simplifies navigation but also reduces the mental overhead required to understand the system. This, in turn, accelerates development cycles and allows developers to focus on delivering value rather than grappling with unnecessary complexity. Furthermore, a well-organized monorepo makes it easier to enforce architectural decisions and maintain consistency in coding practices. By striving for simplicity and clarity, we pave the way for a more robust and scalable system.

Non-Goals: Defining the Scope

To maintain focus and avoid scope creep, it's essential to define what this cleanup will not involve. This helps to set clear boundaries and prevents the task from expanding into unrelated areas. Our non-goals are:

• Migrating any code: There is no code to migrate since apps/backend/ is an empty directory. This task is purely about removing a redundant structure, not about refactoring or moving existing code.
• Changing the architecture of apps/api/: The cleanup will not involve any modifications to the architecture or implementation of the apps/api/ application. The focus remains solely on removing the apps/backend/ directory and its references.

By explicitly stating these non-goals, we ensure that the cleanup remains a focused and manageable task.

Defining non-goals is just as important as outlining goals in any software development task. It helps to manage expectations and prevents the project from veering off course. In this context, clarifying that we won't be migrating code or altering the architecture of apps/api/ sets a clear boundary. This ensures that the cleanup remains a focused effort, preventing it from ballooning into a larger, more complex undertaking. By limiting the scope, we can execute the task efficiently and minimize the risk of introducing unintended side effects. Furthermore, clearly defined non-goals facilitate communication among team members, ensuring everyone is aligned on the objectives and limitations of the cleanup. This promotes collaboration and helps to avoid misunderstandings that could lead to delays or rework.

Acceptance Criteria: Verifying Success

To ensure the successful completion of the cleanup, we need to define clear acceptance criteria. These criteria provide measurable conditions that must be met to consider the task complete. The acceptance criteria for this cleanup are:

• Given the redundant backend directory, When I remove apps/backend/, Then the monorepo only has apps/api/ for backend services.
• Given updated documentation, When I search for "apps/backend", Then no references exist except in historical context (e.g., commit history).
• Given the cleanup, When I run nx show projects, Then backend is not listed as a project.

These criteria provide a concrete framework for verifying that the cleanup has been performed correctly and that all objectives have been met.

Acceptance criteria serve as a vital quality assurance mechanism in software development. They provide a clear and unambiguous definition of what constitutes a successful outcome. By specifying the conditions that must be satisfied, we ensure that the cleanup is not only executed but also verified to meet the intended goals. The acceptance criteria outlined above cover both the removal of the directory and the updating of documentation, ensuring a comprehensive validation of the task. The use of the Given-When-Then format enhances clarity and testability, making it easier to confirm that each criterion has been met. Furthermore, well-defined acceptance criteria facilitate communication among team members, ensuring everyone is on the same page regarding the expected outcome. This promotes collaboration and reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings or disputes about the completion of the task. By adhering to these criteria, we can confidently assert that the cleanup has been performed correctly and that the monorepo is in a cleaner, more maintainable state.

Approach Sketch: Step-by-Step Execution

To effectively remove the redundant directory and update the monorepo, we'll follow a structured approach consisting of the following steps:

1. Remove apps/backend/ directory: This is the primary action. We will physically delete the directory and its contents from the monorepo.
2. Update docs/stories/1.1-nx-monorepo-setup.md: This document likely contains initial setup instructions and may reference the apps/backend/ directory. We'll remove these references.
3. Update docs/architecture.md and related documentation: Architectural documentation may also mention apps/backend/. We'll review and update these documents to reflect the removal.
4. Search and update any other documentation references: We'll perform a comprehensive search across the codebase and documentation to identify and remove any remaining references to apps/backend/.
5. Verify Nx workspace is clean: We'll use Nx commands (e.g., nx show projects) to confirm that the backend project is no longer listed.

This step-by-step approach ensures that all aspects of the cleanup are addressed systematically, minimizing the risk of overlooking any references or dependencies.

A well-defined approach is crucial for executing complex tasks effectively. By breaking down the cleanup into a series of discrete steps, we create a roadmap that guides our actions and ensures we address all necessary aspects. The approach outlined above covers not only the removal of the directory but also the critical task of updating documentation and verifying the changes. This holistic approach minimizes the risk of inconsistencies and ensures that the monorepo is left in a clean and consistent state. Each step in the approach is designed to be easily executable and verifiable, allowing us to track progress and identify any potential issues early on. Furthermore, a structured approach facilitates collaboration among team members, as everyone has a clear understanding of the sequence of actions and their respective responsibilities. By adhering to this approach, we can confidently execute the cleanup efficiently and minimize the risk of errors or omissions.

Risks & Mitigations: Addressing Potential Issues

While the cleanup appears straightforward, it's essential to anticipate potential risks and develop mitigation strategies. The identified risks and their corresponding mitigations are:

• Risk: Accidentally removing needed code. Mitigation: We've verified that apps/backend/ is empty, containing only node_modules and skeleton directories, ensuring no actual code is at risk.
• Risk: Breaking references in documentation or configuration. Mitigation: We'll conduct a comprehensive search and update all documentation references to apps/backend/, ensuring consistency and preventing broken links.

By proactively identifying and addressing these risks, we can minimize the likelihood of encountering issues during the cleanup process.

Risk assessment and mitigation are essential components of any software development task. By anticipating potential problems and devising strategies to address them, we can minimize the impact of unforeseen events and ensure the smooth execution of the cleanup. The risks identified above, while seemingly minor, could have significant consequences if not addressed proactively. Accidentally removing needed code could lead to functionality loss, while broken references could cause confusion and hinder development efforts. The mitigations outlined above, such as verifying the emptiness of the directory and conducting a comprehensive documentation search, are designed to prevent these issues from occurring. Furthermore, by documenting these risks and mitigations, we ensure that all team members are aware of the potential challenges and the steps taken to address them. This promotes transparency and collaboration, allowing everyone to contribute to a successful outcome. By prioritizing risk management, we can confidently proceed with the cleanup, knowing that we have taken appropriate measures to minimize potential disruptions.

Test Plan: Ensuring Quality

To ensure the quality and correctness of the cleanup, we'll implement a test plan that covers various aspects of the changes. The test plan includes the following verification steps:

• Manual verification: We'll manually verify that the apps/backend/ directory has been deleted from the file system.
• Search verification: We'll perform searches across the codebase and documentation to confirm that no references to apps/backend/ remain (except in historical contexts like commit history).
• Build verification: We'll run nx run-many --target=build --all to ensure that the monorepo builds successfully after the cleanup, indicating that no dependencies have been broken.

This test plan provides a multi-faceted approach to validating the cleanup, ensuring that all acceptance criteria are met.

A comprehensive test plan is crucial for ensuring the quality and reliability of any software change. By outlining the specific tests to be performed, we create a framework for verifying that the cleanup has been executed correctly and that no unintended side effects have been introduced. The test plan outlined above covers both manual and automated verification steps, providing a robust approach to validation. Manual verification allows us to directly observe the removal of the directory, while search verification ensures that all references have been updated. The build verification step provides an additional layer of confidence by confirming that the monorepo can be built successfully after the cleanup. By implementing this test plan, we can confidently assert that the cleanup has been performed correctly and that the monorepo is in a consistent and functional state. Furthermore, a well-defined test plan facilitates communication among team members, ensuring everyone is aware of the verification steps and their respective responsibilities. This promotes collaboration and helps to identify any potential issues early on.

Dependencies: Identifying External Factors

Fortunately, this cleanup has no external dependencies. The apps/backend/ directory is self-contained and has no dependents within the monorepo. This simplifies the process and minimizes the risk of unintended consequences.

Understanding dependencies is crucial for managing software projects effectively. By identifying external factors that may influence a task, we can better plan our approach and mitigate potential risks. In this case, the lack of dependencies for the apps/backend/ directory simplifies the cleanup significantly. It means that we can remove the directory without worrying about breaking any other parts of the system. This reduces the complexity of the task and allows us to execute it with greater confidence. Furthermore, by explicitly stating the absence of dependencies, we provide clarity to other team members and ensure that everyone is aware of the limited scope of the cleanup. This promotes collaboration and helps to avoid misunderstandings that could lead to delays or rework. By prioritizing dependency analysis, we can ensure that our actions are well-informed and that we minimize the risk of unintended consequences.

Assets & Links: Providing Contextual Information

To provide additional context and facilitate collaboration, the following assets and links are relevant to this cleanup:

• Current structure: apps/api/ (NestJS application), apps/backend/ (empty directory), apps/web/ (Next.js application).
• Story 1.1: docs/stories/1.1-nx-monorepo-setup.md (documentation that may contain references to apps/backend/).

These resources provide valuable background information and help to understand the monorepo's structure and documentation landscape.

Providing contextual information is essential for effective communication and collaboration in software development. By sharing relevant assets and links, we enable team members to quickly grasp the background of the task and its relationship to the broader project. The assets listed above, such as the current directory structure and the link to the monorepo setup documentation, provide valuable insights into the context of the cleanup. This information helps team members understand the rationale behind the task and the potential impact of the changes. Furthermore, by providing these resources, we encourage transparency and collaboration, allowing everyone to contribute to a successful outcome. By prioritizing contextual information, we can ensure that our actions are well-informed and that we minimize the risk of misunderstandings or errors.

Estimate & Target: Setting Expectations

The estimated size and target for this cleanup are as follows:

• Size: S (Small)
• Estimate: 10-15 minutes
• Target: Immediate cleanup

Given the straightforward nature of the task and the lack of dependencies, this cleanup is considered a small effort that can be completed quickly.

Setting realistic estimates and targets is crucial for effective project management. By providing a clear indication of the effort required and the expected timeline, we can manage expectations and ensure that the cleanup is completed in a timely manner. The estimate of 10-15 minutes reflects the relatively simple nature of the task, given the lack of dependencies and the clear scope. The target of immediate cleanup indicates that this task is considered a priority and can be addressed promptly. By communicating these estimates and targets, we provide clarity to other team members and ensure that everyone is aligned on the timeline for the cleanup. This promotes transparency and helps to avoid delays or misunderstandings. By prioritizing realistic estimations, we can effectively manage our resources and ensure that our projects are completed on time and within budget.

By following this comprehensive approach, we can effectively remove the redundant apps/backend/ directory, streamline the monorepo, and improve overall maintainability. Remember to always double-check your work and ensure that all references are updated to avoid future issues.

For more information on monorepo management and best practices, visit Monorepo.Tools.