Using Quasar + Capacitor inside a pnpm monorepo

[danliyev]

I'm building a pnpm monorepo where one of the apps is a Quasar project with Capacitor mode. The structure looks like this:

/
├── apps/
│   ├── core/
│   └── web/ # Quasar App
│       └── src-capacitor/
├── packages/
└── pnpm-workspace.yaml

The issue is that src-capacitor has its own package.json, but since it's not in the workspace, its dependencies aren't installed on pnpm install. How do you handle this setup? Is there a recommended way to integrate src-capacitor into a monorepo, or do most teams just install its dependencies separately?

[stefanvanherwijnen]

Have you tried adding it to packages in pnpm-workspace.yaml?

[danliyev]

It works actually

I noticed something interesting: when running quasar dev -m capacitor -T android via pnpm -F "@example.com/web" and Quasar prompts to select an external IP, keyboard navigation (arrow keys + enter) doesn't work in the interactive prompt. The same command works correctly when:

• Filtering by path instead: pnpm -F "./apps/web" run dev:android
• Running quasar dev -m capacitor -T android directly from the apps/web directory
• Renaming src-capacitor/package.json#name to anything other than @example.com/web: navigation works, but only once (Quasar CLI overwrites the name field back to @example.com/web)

It seems that pnpm's filter-by-name somehow breaks terminal interactivity in Quasar's prompts.

[hawkeye64]

The current recommendation is not to add apps/web/src-capacitor to the root pnpm-workspace.yaml.

Recent @quasar/app-vite versions (unreleased v3) create a pnpm-workspace.yaml inside src-capacitor. This intentionally makes the Capacitor mode directory an isolated pnpm workspace, even when the Quasar application itself is part of a larger monorepo. Quasar then installs and prepares the mode dependencies from that directory.

Adding src-capacitor to the root workspace can produce two workspace packages with the same name: the Quasar application and its Capacitor mode package. A name filter such as:

pnpm -F "@example.com/web"

can consequently select or attempt to operate on both projects. pnpm's filtered/recursive execution changes how the child process is attached to the terminal, which explains why Quasar's interactive IP prompt loses normal arrow-key and Enter handling. A path filter works because it identifies only the Quasar application.

For an existing project:

1. Remove apps/web/src-capacitor from the root workspace package patterns.
2. Update to a current @quasar/app-vite release.
3. Let Quasar create the missing src-capacitor/pnpm-workspace.yaml the next time it prepares the mode. For an older setup, an empty file at that location provides the same pnpm workspace boundary.
4. Run the command through the apps/web package script or target that package by path.

This preserves the intended separation between application dependencies and native-mode dependencies and avoids the duplicate-package-name prompt issue.