Nx Workspace

by nrwl40b723ccaa3aNo licenseListed Oct 8, 2026Updated Oct 8, 2026

Explore and understand Nx workspaces. USE WHEN answering questions about the workspace, projects, or tasks. ALSO USE WHEN an nx command fails or you need to check available targets/configuration before running a task. EXAMPLES: 'What projects are in this workspace?', 'How is project X configured?', 'What depends on library Y?', 'What targets can I run?', 'Cannot find configuration for task', 'debug nx task failure'.

Instructions onlySoftware Development
AI-generated overview

Read-only exploration of Nx workspaces: list projects, inspect configuration, targets and dependencies.

What it does
Guides an agent through read-only inspection of an Nx workspace using nx CLI commands. It covers listing and filtering projects, retrieving resolved project configuration and targets, reading workspace-level nx.json settings, and querying the project graph for dependencies. It also includes troubleshooting steps for missing task configuration and out-of-sync workspaces, with an accompanying reference file on affected projects.
When to use it
Use it when answering questions about which projects, targets or dependencies exist in an Nx workspace, or how a project is configured. Also use it when an nx command fails or you need to check available targets before running a task.
Requirements
An Nx workspace with the nx CLI available (possibly via npx, pnpx or yarn), plus local tools such as jq for processing JSON output. Instructions only; no scripts are shipped.

Nx Workspace Exploration

This skill provides read-only exploration of Nx workspaces. Use it to understand workspace structure, project configuration, available targets, and dependencies.

Keep in mind that you might have to prefix commands with npx/pnpx/yarn if nx isn't installed globally. Check the lockfile to determine the package manager in use.

Listing Projects

Use nx show projects to list projects in the workspace.

The project filtering syntax (-p/--projects) works across many Nx commands including nx run-many, nx release, nx show projects, and more. Filters support explicit names, glob patterns, tag references (e.g. tag:name), directories, and negation (e.g. !project-name).

bash
# List all projectsnx show projects
# Filter by pattern (glob)nx show projects --projects "apps/*"nx show projects --projects "shared-*"
# Filter by tagnx show projects --projects "tag:publishable"nx show projects -p 'tag:publishable,!tag:internal'
# Filter by target (projects that have a specific target)nx show projects --withTarget build
# Combine filtersnx show projects --type lib --withTarget testnx show projects --affected --exclude="*-e2e"nx show projects -p "tag:scope:client,packages/*"
# Negate patternsnx show projects -p '!tag:private'nx show projects -p '!*-e2e'
# Output as JSONnx show projects --json

Project Configuration

Use nx show project <name> --json to get the full resolved configuration for a project.

Important: Do NOT read project.json directly - it only contains partial configuration. The nx show project --json command returns the full resolved config including inferred targets from plugins.

You can read the full project schema at node_modules/nx/schemas/project-schema.json to understand nx project configuration options.

bash
# Get full project configurationnx show project my-app --json
# Extract specific parts from the JSONnx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets'nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build'nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets | keys'
# Check project metadatanx show project my-app --json | jq '{name, root, sourceRoot, projectType, tags}'

Target Information

Targets define what tasks can be run on a project.

bash
# List all targets for a projectnx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets | keys'
# Get full target configurationnx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build'
# Check target executor/commandnx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build.executor'nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build.command'
# View target optionsnx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build.options'
# Check target inputs/outputs (for caching)nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build.inputs'nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build.outputs'
# Find projects with a specific targetnx show projects --withTarget servenx show projects --withTarget e2e

Workspace Configuration

Read nx.json directly for workspace-level configuration. You can read the full project schema at node_modules/nx/schemas/nx-schema.json to understand nx project configuration options.

bash
# Read the full nx.jsoncat nx.json
# Or use jq for specific sectionscat nx.json | jq '.targetDefaults'cat nx.json | jq '.namedInputs'cat nx.json | jq '.plugins'cat nx.json | jq '.generators'

Key nx.json sections:

  • targetDefaults - Default configuration applied to all targets of a given name
  • namedInputs - Reusable input definitions for caching
  • plugins - Nx plugins and their configuration
  • ...and much more, read the schema or nx.json for details

Affected Projects

If the user is asking about affected projects, read the affected projects reference [blocked] for detailed commands and examples.

Common Exploration Patterns

"What's in this workspace?"

bash
nx show projectsnx show projects --type appnx show projects --type lib

"How do I build/test/lint project X?"

bash
nx show project X --json | jq '.targets | keys'nx show project X --json | jq '.targets.build'

"What depends on library Y?"

bash
# Use the project graph to find dependentsnx graph --print | jq '.graph.dependencies | to_entries[] | select(.value[].target == "Y") | .key'

Programmatic Answers

When processing nx CLI results, use command-line tools to compute the answer programmatically rather than counting or parsing output manually. Always use --json flags to get structured output that can be processed with jq, grep, or other tools you have installed locally.

Listing Projects

bash
nx show projects --json

Example output:

json
["my-app", "my-app-e2e", "shared-ui", "shared-utils", "api"]

Common operations:

bash
# Count projectsnx show projects --json | jq 'length'
# Filter by patternnx show projects --json | jq '.[] | select(startswith("shared-"))'
# Get affected projects as arraynx show projects --affected --json | jq '.'

Project Details

bash
nx show project my-app --json

Example output:

json
{  "root": "apps/my-app",  "name": "my-app",  "sourceRoot": "apps/my-app/src",  "projectType": "application",  "tags": ["type:app", "scope:client"],  "targets": {    "build": {      "command": "vite build",      "options": { "cwd": "apps/my-app" }    },    "serve": {      "command": "vite",      "options": { "cwd": "apps/my-app" }    },    "test": {      "command": "vitest",      "options": { "cwd": "apps/my-app" }    }  },  "implicitDependencies": []}

Common operations:

bash
# Get target namesnx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets | keys'
# Get specific target confignx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build'
# Get tagsnx show project my-app --json | jq '.tags'
# Get project rootnx show project my-app --json | jq -r '.root'

Project Graph

bash
nx graph --print

Example output:

json
{  "graph": {    "nodes": {      "my-app": {        "name": "my-app",        "type": "app",        "data": { "root": "apps/my-app", "tags": ["type:app"] }      },      "shared-ui": {        "name": "shared-ui",        "type": "lib",        "data": { "root": "libs/shared-ui", "tags": ["type:ui"] }      }    },    "dependencies": {      "my-app": [        { "source": "my-app", "target": "shared-ui", "type": "static" }      ],      "shared-ui": []    }  }}

Common operations:

bash
# Get all project names from graphnx graph --print | jq '.graph.nodes | keys'
# Find dependencies of a projectnx graph --print | jq '.graph.dependencies["my-app"]'
# Find projects that depend on a librarynx graph --print | jq '.graph.dependencies | to_entries[] | select(.value[].target == "shared-ui") | .key'

Troubleshooting

"Cannot find configuration for task X:target"

bash
# Check what targets exist on the projectnx show project X --json | jq '.targets | keys'
# Check if any projects have that targetnx show projects --withTarget target

"The workspace is out of sync"

bash
nx syncnx reset  # if sync doesn't fix stale cache

Source and attribution

Source:nrwl/nx-ai-agents-configinskills/nx-workspaceat commit40b723c

License: No license

Content belongs to its original authors. SourceWeft indexes it from a public repository.

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