Project Configuration
Projects can be configured in package.json
(if you use npm scripts and not Nx executors) and project.json
(if you use task executors). Both package.json
and project.json
files are located in each project's folder. Nx merges the two files to get each project's configuration.
The following configuration creates build
and test
targets for Nx.
{
"name": "mylib",
"scripts": {
"test": "jest",
"build": "tsc -p tsconfig.lib.json" // the actual command here is arbitrary
}
}
You can invoke nx build mylib
or nx test mylib
without any extra configuration.
You can add Nx-specific configuration as follows:
{
"name": "mylib",
"scripts": {
"test": "jest",
"build": "tsc -p tsconfig.lib.json", // the actual command here is arbitrary
"ignored": "exit 1"
},
"nx": {
"namedInputs": {
"default": ["{projectRoot}/**/*"],
"production": ["!{projectRoot}/**/*.spec.tsx"]
},
"targets": {
"build": {
"inputs": ["production", "^production"],
"outputs": ["{workspaceRoot}/dist/libs/mylib"],
"dependsOn": ["^build"]
},
"test": {
"inputs": ["default", "^production"],
"outputs": [],
"dependsOn": ["build"]
}
},
"includedScripts": ["test", "build"] // If you want to limit the scripts Nx sees, you can specify a list here.
}
}
inputs & namedInputs
The inputs
array tells Nx what to consider to determine whether a particular invocation of a script should be a cache hit or not. There are three types of inputs:
Filesets
Examples:
{projectRoot}/**.*.ts
- same as
{fileset: "{projectRoot}/**/*.ts"}
{workspaceRoot}/jest.config.ts
- same as
{fileset: "{workspaceRoot}/jest.config.ts}
The inputs
and namedInputs
are parsed with the following rules:
{projectRoot}
and{workspaceRoot}
are replaced with the appropriate path- A
^
character at the beginning of the string means this entry applies to the project dependencies of the project, not the project itself. - Everything else is processed with the minimatch library
Runtime Inputs
Examples:
{runtime: "node -v"}
Note the result value is hashed, so it is never displayed.
Env Variables
Examples:
{env: "MY_ENV_VAR"}
Note the result value is hashed, so it is never displayed.
External Dependencies
For official plugins, Nx intelligently finds a set of external dependencies which it hashes for the target. nx:run-commands
is an exception to this. Because you may specify any command to be run, it is not possible to determine which, if any, external dependencies are used by the target. To be safe, Nx assumes that updating any external dependency invalidates the cache for the target.
Note: Community plugins are also treated like
nx:run-commands
This input type allows you to override this cautious behavior by specifying a set of external dependencies to hash for the target.
Examples:
Targets that only use commands natively available in the terminal will not depend on any external dependencies. Specify an empty array to not hash any external dependencies.
{
"targets": {
"copyFiles": {
"inputs": [
{
"externalDependencies": []
}
],
"command": "cp src/assets dist"
}
}
}
If a target uses a command from an npm package, that package should be listed.
{
"targets": {
"copyFiles": {
"inputs": [
{
"externalDependencies": ["lerna"]
}
],
"command": "npx lerna publish"
}
}
}
Dependent tasks output
This input allows us to depend on the output, rather than the input of the dependent tasks. We can specify the glob pattern to match only the subset of the output files. The transitive
parameter defines whether the check and the pattern should be recursively applied to the dependent tasks of the child tasks.
Examples:
{
"namedInputs": {
"default": ["{projectRoot}/**/*", "sharedGlobals"],
"production": ["default", "!{projectRoot}/**/*.spec.ts"],
"deps": [{ "dependentTasksOutputFiles": "**/*.d.ts", "transitive": true }]
},
"targetDefaults": {
"build": {
"dependsOn": ["^build"],
"inputs": ["production", "deps"]
}
}
}
Named Inputs
Examples:
inputs: ["production"]
- same as
"inputs": [{"input": "production", "projects": "self"}]
in versions prior to Nx 16, or"inputs": [{"input": "production"}]
after version 16.
Often the same glob will appear in many places (e.g., prod fileset will exclude spec files for all projects). Because keeping them in sync is error-prone, we recommend defining namedInputs
, which you can then reference in all of those places.
Using ^
Examples:
inputs: ["^production"]
- same as
inputs: [{"input": "production", "projects": "dependencies"}]
prior to Nx 16, or"inputs": [{"input": "production", "dependencies": true }]
after version 16.
Similar to dependsOn
, the "^" symbols means "dependencies". This is a very important idea, so let's illustrate it with an example.
{
"targets": {
"test": {
"inputs": ["default", "^production"]
}
}
}
The configuration above means that the test target depends on all source files of a given project and only prod sources (non-test sources) of its dependencies. In other words, it treats test sources as private.
inputs and namedInputs are also described in the nx.json reference
This guide walks through a few examples of how to customize inputs and namedInputs
Outputs
Targets may define outputs to tell Nx where the target is going to create file artifacts that Nx should cache. "outputs": ["{workspaceRoot}/dist/libs/mylib"]
tells Nx where the build
target is going to create file artifacts.
This configuration is usually not needed. Nx comes with reasonable defaults (imported in nx.json
) which implement the configuration above.
Specifically, by default, the following locations are cached for builds:
{workspaceRoot}/dist/{projectRoot}
,{projectRoot}/build
,{projectRoot}/dist
,{projectRoot}/public
Basic Example
Usually, a target writes to a specific directory or a file. The following instructs Nx to cache dist/libs/mylib
and build/libs/mylib/main.js
:
{
"targets": {
"build": {
"outputs": [
"{workspaceRoot}/dist/libs/mylib",
"{workspaceRoot}/build/libs/mylib/main.js"
]
}
}
}
Specifying Globs
Sometimes, multiple targets might write to the same directory. When possible it is recommended to direct these targets into separate directories.
{
"targets": {
"build-js": {
"outputs": ["{workspaceRoot}/dist/libs/mylib/js"]
},
"build-css": {
"outputs": ["{workspaceRoot}/dist/libs/mylib/css"]
}
}
}
But if the above is not possible, globs (parsed by the GlobSet Rust library) can be specified as outputs to only cache a set of files rather than the whole directory.
{
"targets": {
"build-js": {
"outputs": ["{workspaceRoot}/dist/libs/mylib/**/*.{js,map}"]
},
"build-css": {
"outputs": ["{workspaceRoot}/dist/libs/mylib/**/*.css"]
}
}
}
dependsOn
Targets can depend on other targets. This is the relevant portion of the configuration file:
{
"targets": {
"build": {
"dependsOn": ["^build"]
},
"test": {
"dependsOn": ["build"]
}
}
}
A common scenario is having to build dependencies of a project first before building the project. This is what the "dependsOn": ["^build"]
property of the build
target configures. It tells Nx that before it can build mylib
it needs to make sure that mylib
's dependencies are built as well. This doesn't mean Nx is going to rerun those builds. If the right artifacts are already in the right place, Nx will do nothing. If they aren't in the right place, but they are available in the cache, Nx will retrieve them from the cache.
Another common scenario is for a target to depend on another target of the same project. For instance, "dependsOn": ["build"]
of the test
target tells Nx that before it can test mylib
it needs to make sure that mylib
is built, which will result in mylib
's dependencies being built as well.
You can also express task dependencies with an object syntax:
{
"targets": {
"build": {
"dependsOn": [
{
"projects": "dependencies", // "dependencies" or "self"
"target": "build", // target name
"params": "ignore" // "forward" or "ignore", defaults to "ignore"
}
]
}
}
}
Examples
You can write the shorthand configuration above in the object syntax like this:
{
"targets": {
"build": {
"dependsOn": [{ "projects": "dependencies", "target": "build" }]
},
"test": {
"dependsOn": [{ "projects": "self", "target": "build" }]
}
}
}
With the expanded syntax, you also have a third option available to configure how to handle the params passed to the target. You can either forward them or you can ignore them (default).
{
"targets": {
"build": {
// forward params passed to this target to the dependency targets
"dependsOn": [
{ "projects": "dependencies", "target": "build", "params": "forward" }
]
},
"test": {
// ignore params passed to this target, won't be forwarded to the dependency targets
"dependsOn": [
{ "projects": "dependencies", "target": "build", "params": "ignore" }
]
},
"lint": {
// ignore params passed to this target, won't be forwarded to the dependency targets
"dependsOn": [{ "projects": "dependencies", "target": "build" }]
}
}
}
This also works when defining a relation for the target of the project itself using "projects": "self"
:
{
"targets": {
"build": {
// forward params passed to this target to the project target
"dependsOn": [
{ "projects": "self", "target": "pre-build", "params": "forward" }
]
}
}
}
Additionally, when using the expanded object syntax, you can specify individual projects in version 16 or greater.
{
"targets": {
"build": {
// Run is-even:pre-build and is-odd:pre-build before this target
"dependsOn": [
{ "projects": ["is-even", "is-odd"], "target": "pre-build" }
]
}
}
}
This configuration is usually not needed. Nx comes with reasonable defaults (imported in nx.json
) which implement the configuration above.
tags
You can annotate your projects with tags
as follows:
{
"name": "mylib",
"nx": {
"tags": ["scope:myteam"]
}
}
You can configure lint rules using these tags to, for instance, ensure that libraries belonging to myteam
are not depended on by libraries belong to theirteam
.
implicitDependencies
Nx uses powerful source-code analysis to figure out your workspace's project graph. Some dependencies cannot be deduced statically, so you can set them manually like this. The implicitDependencies
property is parsed with the minimatch library, so you can review that syntax for more advanced use cases.
{
"name": "mylib",
"nx": {
"implicitDependencies": ["anotherlib"]
}
}
You can also remove a dependency as follows:
{
"name": "mylib",
"nx": {
"implicitDependencies": ["!anotherlib"] # regardless of what Nx thinks, "mylib" doesn't depend on "anotherlib"
}
}
An implicit dependency could also be a glob pattern:
{
"name": "mylib",
"nx": {
"implicitDependencies": ["shop-*"] # "mylib" depends on all projects beginning with "shop-"
}
}
Including package.json files as projects in the graph
Any package.json
file that is referenced by the workspaces
property in the root package.json
file will be included as a project in the graph. If you are using Lerna, projects defined in lerna.json
will be included. If you are using pnpm, projects defined in pnpm-workspace.yml
will be included.
If you want to ignore a particular package.json
file, exclude it from those tools. For example, you can add !packages/myproject
to the workspaces
property.
Ignoring package.json scripts
Nx merges package.json scripts with your targets that are defined in project.json. If you only wish for some scripts to be used as Nx targets, you can specify them in the includedScripts
property of the project's package.json.
{
"name": "my-library",
"version": "0.0.1",
"scripts": {
"build": "tsc",
"postinstall": "node ./tasks/postinstall"
},
"nx": {
"includedScripts": ["build"]
}
}