# Reducing our monorepo size to improve developer velocity

DevFeed: [Reducing our monorepo size to improve developer velocity](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/reducing-our-monorepo-size-to-improve-developer-velocity-176.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/reducing-our-monorepo-size-to-improve-developer-velocity>)

Author: Yasmin McDowell,Lawrence Good,Ilya Yakovlev,Andrew Cheung,Binoy Dash,Simran Jumani,Dmitriy Meyerzon,Mark Breitenbach,Ishan Mishra,Kazuaki Okumura,Mike White,Kevin Altschuler,Facundo Agriel,Ishan Mishr

Published: 2026-03-25T17:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Dropbox Tech Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/dropbox-tech-blog.md>)

Topics: [developer velocity](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/developer-velocity.md>), [Git](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/git.md>), [GitHub](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/github.md>), [ci](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ci.md>), [Back end](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/backend.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [backend](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backend.md>), [ci](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ci.md>), [developer-velocity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developer-velocity.md>), [developers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developers.md>), [development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development.md>), [git](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/git.md>), [github](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/github.md>), [infrastructure](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/infrastructure.md>), [onboarding](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/onboarding.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [scale](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/scale.md>), [storage](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/storage.md>), [workflows](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/workflows.md>)

## AI overview

Dropbox reduced its server monorepo from 87GB to 20GB, cutting full-clone time from more than an hour to under 15 minutes. The article explains how repository growth affected developer onboarding, CI pipelines, synchronization systems, and operational risk near GitHub's 100GB limit.

## Source excerpt

Monorepos will continue to grow as products evolve, but growth doesn't have to mean friction.