Land is a monorepo with two parallel dependency graphs: a pnpm workspace for all TypeScript elements and a Cargo workspace for all Rust elements. Each element is also a Git submodule with its own repository, so dependency changes require following the correct per-submodule workflow. The rules and procedures for both dependency graphs are as follows.

JavaScript Dependencies (pnpm) 📦

Workspace Protocol

All cross-element dependencies within the monorepo use the pnpm workspace protocol:

{
	"dependencies": {
		"@codeeditorland/common": "workspace:*"
	}
}

Important

Never use npm or yarn to install packages in any Land workspace package. The repository uses a pnpm content-addressed store. Running npm install in a workspace package creates a node_modules tree that conflicts with pnpm’s layout and may overwrite workspace symlinks.

Adding a New JavaScript Dependency

cd into the element’s directory (e.g., Element/Wind).
Run pnpm add <package-name> for a runtime dependency, or pnpm add -D <package-name> for a dev dependency.
Verify the entry in package.json is correct, then run pnpm install from the repo root to update the lockfile.
Stage package.json and pnpm-lock.yaml by name - never git add ..

VS Code Editor Submodule

The VS Code source in Dependency/Microsoft/Dependency/Editor uses npm, not pnpm. Its package-lock.json and .npmrc are npm-native. When updating dependencies in that submodule, use npm install inside that directory only. See Building Land for the full Node 24 compile steps.

Rust Dependencies (Cargo) 🦀

Adding a New Rust Dependency

Edit the Cargo.toml of the specific element (e.g., Element/Mountain/Cargo.toml), not the workspace root.
Add the dependency under [dependencies] with an explicit version.
If the crate requires a fork or a pinned unreleased commit, add a [patch.crates-io] entry in the workspace root Cargo.toml.
Run cargo build -p <element-name> to verify it compiles. Do not run a full workspace build unless needed - the Maintain crate does not require rebuilding when only source files change.

The 51 Active `[patch.crates-io]` Redirects

The workspace Cargo.toml contains 51 active [patch.crates-io] entries. These exist for one of three reasons:

Reason	Example
Pinned fork for Tauri 2.x compatibility	`wry`, `tao`
Unreleased upstream fix not yet on crates.io	gRPC transport fixes
Land-specific patch applied to upstream source	Asset scheme handler

Warning

Do not remove [patch.crates-io] entries without verifying that the upstream crate now contains the required change. Removing a patch that is still needed causes either a compile error or a silent runtime regression.

When a new patch is needed, add it to the workspace root Cargo.toml under [patch.crates-io] with a git and branch or rev specifier:

[patch.crates-io]
some-crate = { git = "https://github.com/CodeEditorLand/some-crate", branch = "Current" }

Submodule Update Workflow 🔄

Each element under Land/Element/ is a separate Git submodule with its own repository and branch. Never use git submodule update --recursive.

Updating a Single Element Submodule

cd Element/Mountain
git fetch --all
git reset --hard origin/Current

Then return to the repo root and stage the updated gitlink by name:

git add Element/Mountain

Warning

Never run git add . at the repo root. This converts submodule gitlinks into directory trees, corrupting the index. Always stage submodule updates using the explicit path.

Updating the VS Code Dependency Submodule

The VS Code source submodule at Dependency/Microsoft/Dependency/Editor requires Node 24 for the compile step. Full update sequence:

cd Dependency/Microsoft/Dependency/Editor
nvm use 24
git fetch --all
git reset --hard Parent/main
git clean -dfx
export NODE_ENV=development
npm install
npm run compile
npm run compile-extensions-build

After the compile succeeds, return to the repo root and stage the gitlink:

git add Dependency/Microsoft/Dependency/Editor

The compile-extensions-build step produces the out-<platform> directories consumed by the Output element. Skip it and Cocoon will fail to locate platform code at runtime.

Git LFS 📦

SideCar stores vendored Node.js binaries in Git LFS. Before cloning or running the SideCar download tool for the first time, ensure Git LFS is initialized on the machine:

git lfs install

Without Git LFS, the binary files in Element/SideCar/ are checked out as LFS pointer stubs rather than real binaries, and Mountain’s build.rs will fail to stage the correct Node.js binary for bundling.

pnpm Content-Addressed Store 💾

pnpm uses a content-addressed store shared across all projects on the machine (default: ~/.pnpm-store). This means installing a package version that is already used by another project on the machine is near-instant and requires no additional disk space. The store is managed automatically; do not modify its contents directly.

When the store becomes corrupted (rare), run pnpm store prune to remove orphaned packages, then pnpm install from the repo root to relink.