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 ).

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Common Exploration Patterns

"What's in this workspace?"

nx show projects nx show projects --type app nx show projects --type lib

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

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

"What depends on library Y?"

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

nx show projects --json

Example output:

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

Common operations:

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

nx show project my-app --json

Example output:

{ "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:

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

nx graph --print

Example output:

{ "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:

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"

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"

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