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 projects
nx show projects

# Filter by pattern (glob)
nx show projects --projects "apps/*"
nx show projects --projects "shared-*"

# Filter by tag
nx 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

# Find affected projects (changed since base branch)
nx show projects --affected
nx show projects --affected --base=main
nx show projects --affected --type app

# Combine filters
nx show projects --type lib --withTarget test
nx show projects --affected --exclude="*-e2e"
nx show projects -p "tag:scope:client,packages/*"

# Negate patterns (use single quotes to prevent bash history expansion)
nx show projects -p '!tag:private'
nx show projects -p '!*-e2e'

# Output as JSON
nx 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 configuration
nx show project my-app --json

# Extract specific parts from the JSON
nx 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 metadata
nx 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 project
nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets | keys'

# Get full target configuration
nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build'

# Check target executor/command
nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build.executor'
nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build.command'

# View target options
nx 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 target
nx show projects --withTarget serve
nx 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.json
cat nx.json

# Or use jq for specific sections
cat 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

Find projects affected by changes in the current branch.

bash

# Affected since base branch (auto-detected)
nx show projects --affected

# Affected with explicit base
nx show projects --affected --base=main
nx show projects --affected --base=origin/main

# Affected between two commits
nx show projects --affected --base=abc123 --head=def456

# Affected apps only
nx show projects --affected --type app

# Affected excluding e2e projects
nx show projects --affected --exclude="*-e2e"

# Affected by uncommitted changes
nx show projects --affected --uncommitted

# Affected by untracked files
nx show projects --affected --untracked

Common Exploration Patterns

"What's in this workspace?"

bash

nx show projects
nx show projects --type app
nx 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 dependents
nx 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 projects
nx show projects --json | jq 'length'

# Filter by pattern
nx show projects --json | jq '.[] | select(startswith("shared-"))'

# Get affected projects as array
nx 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": {
      "executor": "@nx/vite:build",
      "options": { "outputPath": "dist/apps/my-app" }
    },
    "serve": {
      "executor": "@nx/vite:dev-server",
      "options": { "buildTarget": "my-app:build" }
    },
    "test": {
      "executor": "@nx/vite:test",
      "options": {}
    }
  },
  "implicitDependencies": []
}

Common operations:

bash

# Get target names
nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets | keys'

# Get specific target config
nx show project my-app --json | jq '.targets.build'

# Get tags
nx show project my-app --json | jq '.tags'

# Get project root
nx 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 graph
nx graph --print | jq '.graph.nodes | keys'

# Find dependencies of a project
nx graph --print | jq '.graph.dependencies["my-app"]'

# Find projects that depend on a library
nx 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 project
nx show project X --json | jq '.targets | keys'

# Check if any projects have that target
nx show projects --withTarget target

"The workspace is out of sync"

bash

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

nx-workspace

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Nx Workspace Exploration

Listing Projects

Project Configuration

Target Information

Workspace Configuration

Affected Projects

Common Exploration Patterns

"What's in this workspace?"

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

"What depends on library Y?"

Programmatic Answers

Listing Projects

Project Details

Project Graph

Troubleshooting

"Cannot find configuration for task X:target"

"The workspace is out of sync"