.nx and the Nx Wrapper

Nx is able to manage its own installation via the .nx directory. This installation is described within nx.json.

By allowing Nx to manage its installation, a given repository is no longer required to contain a package.json or node_modules in its root. This is useful for repositories which may not contain any javascript or typescript. Additionally, since the Nx installation is managed inside .nx, it is easier to separate out from your other dependencies.

Usage

You can install Nx in the .nx/installation directory by running nx init in a directory without package.json, and picking to install Nx in the current directory.

When Nx is installed in .nx, you can run Nx via a global Nx installation or the nx and nx.bat scripts that were created. In either case, the wrapper (.nx/nxw.js) will be invoked and ensure that the current workspace is up to date prior to invoking Nx.

> nx build my-project > nx generate application > nx graph
Available since Nx v15.8.7

Support for --use-dot-nx-installation was added in Nx v15.8.7. To ensure that it is available, specify the version of nx when running your command so that npx doesn't accept an older version that is in the cache. (e.g. npx nx@latest init)