# nx.json

The `nx.json` file configures the Nx CLI and project defaults. The full [machine readable schema](https://github.com/nrwl/nx/blob/master/packages/nx/schemas/nx-schema.json) is available on Github.

The following is an expanded example showing all options. Your `nx.json` will likely be much shorter. For a more intuitive understanding of the roles of each option, you can highlight the options in the excerpt below that relate to different categories.

```json {% fileName="nx.json" lineGroups={ Caching:[15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,29], Orchestration:[3,4,5,28,30], Execution:[28,31,32,33,34] } %}
{
  "extends": "nx/presets/npm.json",
  "affected": {
    "defaultBase": "main"
  },
  "workspaceLayout": {
    "appsDir": "demos",
    "libsDir": "packages"
  },
  "generators": {
    "@nx/js:library": {
      "buildable": true
    }
  },
  "tasksRunnerOptions": {
    "default": {
      "runner": "nx/tasks-runners/default",
      "options": {
        "cacheableOperations": ["build", "lint", "test", "e2e"]
      }
    }
  },
  "namedInputs": {
    "default": ["{projectRoot}/**/*"],
    "production": ["!{projectRoot}/**/*.spec.tsx"]
  },
  "targetDefaults": {
    "build": {
      "inputs": ["production", "^production"],
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "executor": "@nrwl/js:tsc",
      "options": {
        "main": "{projectRoot}/src/index.ts"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Extends

Some presets use the `extends` property to hide some default options in a separate json file. The json file specified in the `extends` property is located in your `node_modules` folder. The Nx preset files are specified in [the `nx` package](https://github.com/nrwl/nx/tree/master/packages/nx/presets).

### NPM Scope

The `npmScope` property of the `nx.json` file is deprecated as of version 16.2.0. `npmScope` was used as a prefix for the names of newly created projects. The new recommended way to define the organization prefix is to set the `name` property in the root `package.json` file to `@my-org/root`. Then `@my-org/` will be used as a prefix for all newly created projects.

In Nx 16, if the `npmScope` property is present, it will be used as a prefix. If the `npmScope` property is not present, the `name` property of the root `package.json` file will be used to infer the prefix.

In Nx 17, the `npmScope` property will be ignored.

### Affected

Tells Nx which branch and HEAD to use when calculating affected projects.

- `defaultBase` defines the default base branch, defaulted to `main`.

### Workspace Layout

You can add a `workspaceLayout` property to modify where libraries and apps are located.

```json
{
  "workspaceLayout": {
    "appsDir": "demos",
    "libsDir": "packages"
  }
}
```

These settings would store apps in `/demos/` and libraries in `/packages/`. The paths specified are relative to the
workspace root.

### inputs & namedInputs

Named inputs defined in `nx.json` are merged with the named inputs defined in each project's project.json.
In other words, every project has a set of named inputs, and it's defined as: `{...namedInputsFromNxJson, ...namedInputsFromProjectsProjectJson}`.

Defining `inputs` for a given target would replace the set of inputs for that target name defined in `nx.json`.
Using pseudocode `inputs = projectJson.targets.build.inputs || nxJson.targetDefaults.build.inputs`.

You can also define and redefine named inputs. This enables one key use case, where your `nx.json` can define things
like this (which applies to every project):

```
"test": {
  "inputs": [
    "default",
    "^production"
  ]
}
```

And projects can define their `production` fileset, without having to redefine the inputs for the `test` target.

```json {% fileName="project.json" %}
{
  "namedInputs": {
    "production": ["default", "!{projectRoot}/**/*.test.js"]
  }
}
```

In this case Nx will use the right `production` input for each project.

{% cards %}
{% card title="Project Configuration reference" type="documentation" description="inputs and namedInputs are also described in the project configuration reference" url="/reference/project-configuration#inputs-&-namedinputs" /%}
{% card title="Customizing inputs and namedInputs" type="documentation" description="This guide walks through a few examples of how to customize inputs and namedInputs" url="/concepts/more-concepts/customizing-inputs" /%}
{% /cards %}

### Target Defaults

Target defaults provide ways to set common options for a particular target in your workspace. When building your project's configuration, we merge it with up to 1 default from this map. For a given target, we look at its name and its executor. We then check target defaults for any of the following combinations:

- `` `${executor}` ``
- `` `${targetName}` ``

Whichever of these we find first, we use as the base for that target's configuration. Some common scenarios for this follow.

Targets can depend on other targets. A common scenario is having to build dependencies of a project first before
building the project. The `dependsOn` property in `project.json` can be used to define the list of dependencies of an
individual target.

Often the same `dependsOn` configuration has to be defined for every project in the repo, and that's when
defining `targetDefaults` in `nx.json` is helpful.

```json {% fileName="nx.json" %}
{
  "targetDefaults": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build"]
    }
  }
}
```

The configuration above is identical to adding `{"dependsOn": ["^build"]}` to every build target of every project.

For full documentation of the `dependsOn` property, see the [project configuration reference](/reference/project-configuration#dependson).
{% cards %}
{% card title="Project Configuration reference" type="documentation" description="For full documentation of the `dependsOn` property, see the project configuration reference" url="/reference/project-configuration#dependson" /%}
{% /cards %}

Another target default you can configure is `outputs`:

```json {% fileName="nx.json" %}
{
  "targetDefaults": {
    "build": {
      "outputs": ["{projectRoot}/custom-dist"]
    }
  }
}
```

When defining any options or configurations inside of a target default, you may use the `{workspaceRoot}` and `{projectRoot}` tokens. This is useful for defining things like the outputPath or tsconfig for many build targets.

```json {% fileName="nx.json" %}
{
  "targetDefaults": {
    "@nx/js:tsc": {
      "options": {
        "main": "{projectRoot}/src/index.ts"
      },
      "configurations": {
        "prod": {
          "tsconfig": "{projectRoot}/tsconfig.prod.json"
        }
      },
      "inputs": ["prod"],
      "outputs": ["{workspaceRoot}/{projectRoot}"]
    },
    "build": {
      "inputs": ["prod"],
      "outputs": ["{workspaceRoot}/{projectRoot}"]
    }
  }
}
```

{% callout type="note" title="Target Default Priority" %}
Note that the inputs and outputs are respecified on the @nx/js:tsc default configuration. This is **required**, as when reading target defaults Nx will only ever look at one key. If there is a default configuration based on the executor used, it will be read first. If not, Nx will fall back to looking at the configuration based on target name. For instance, running `nx build project` will read the options from `targetDefaults[@nx/js:tsc]` if the target configuration for build uses the @nx/js:tsc executor. It **would not** read any of the configuration from the `build` target default configuration unless the executor does not match.
{% /callout %}

### Generators

Default generator options are configured in `nx.json` as well. For instance, the following tells Nx to always
pass `--buildable=true` when creating new libraries.

```json {% fileName="nx.json" %}
{
  "generators": {
    "@nx/js:library": {
      "buildable": true
    }
  }
}
```

### Tasks Runner Options

> A task is an invocation of a target.

Tasks runners are invoked when you run `nx test`, `nx build`, `nx run-many`, `nx affected`, and so on. The tasks runner
named "default" is used by default. Specify a different one like this `nx run-many -t build --runner=another`.

Tasks runners can accept different options. The following are the options supported
by `"nx/tasks-runners/default"` and `"nx-cloud"`.

| Property                | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| ----------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| cacheableOperations     | defines the list of targets/operations that are cached by Nx                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| parallel                | defines the max number of targets ran in parallel (in older versions of Nx you had to pass `--parallel --maxParallel=3` instead of `--parallel=3`)                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| captureStderr           | defines whether the cache captures stderr or just stdout                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| skipNxCache             | defines whether the Nx Cache should be skipped (defaults to `false`)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| cacheDirectory          | defines where the local cache is stored (defaults to `node_modules/.cache/nx`)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| encryptionKey           | (when using `"nx-cloud"` only) defines an encryption key to support end-to-end encryption of your cloud cache. You may also provide an environment variable with the key `NX_CLOUD_ENCRYPTION_KEY` that contains an encryption key as its value. The Nx Cloud task runner normalizes the key length, so any length of key is acceptable |
| selectivelyHashTsConfig | only hash the path mapping of the active project in the `tsconfig.base.json` (e.g., adding/removing projects doesn't affect the hash of existing projects) (defaults to `false`)                                                                                                                                                        |

You can configure `parallel` in `nx.json`, but you can also pass them in the
terminal `nx run-many -t test --parallel=5`.
