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Glossary

Boundaries​

Boundaries define conceptual limits of a certain responsibility or concern within a software application. They help to establish clear separation between different parts of the system and promote modularity and maintainability.

Caching​

Nx caching is a feature that speeds up task execution by storing results and when possible (i.e. inputs haven't changed).

External Dependencies​

External dependencies refer to dependencies that are managed by a package manager and are not part of the workspace's source code.

Generators​

Generators are commands that can scaffold new code, or update existing code.

Cf. 📝 Generate Code by Nx

Library​

A library is either a:

  • non-buildable library: a folder with code that can be imported by other projects in the workspace through one or multiple entrypoints.
  • buildable library: a library that can be built separately from the apps that use it. (this is useful for incremental build)
  • publishable library: a library that can be published to a registry (e.g. NPM).

Cf. Split Apps into Libs > Non-Buildable vs. Buildable vs. Publishable Libs

Migration​

Migration generators are special generators that allow Nx plugin authors to provide a way to update existing code and configuration to a new version of the plugin.

Cf. 📝 Migration Generators by Nx

Monorepo​

A monorepo is a single repository that contains multiple projects or applications. Unintuitively, monorepos are often easier to manage than polyrepos (e.g. atomic changes and cross-project changes). While them come with their own set of challenges (e.g. build times), Nx swallows that complexity for you.

Cf. 📺 Why Google Stores Billions of Lines of Code in a Single Repository by Rachel Potvin

Plugin​

An Nx Plugin is a package that extends the capabilities of Nx with:

  • generators
  • executors
  • migrations
  • inferred tasks
  • additional language support for the dependency graph

Polyrepo​

A polyrepo approach is where each project or application is stored in its own separate repository. It is the opposite of a monorepo and offers more flexibility in terms of project organization and independence but it can quickly lead to challenges in terms of code sharing and consistency.

Project​

An Nx Project is either an application or a library (or an Nx Plugin which is actually a library).

Project Crystal​

Project Crystal is a codename for Nx 18 features that leverage task inferrence to provide a more seamless developer experience.

Cf. Implicit Libraries > Project Crystal

Single Version Policy​

Single Version Policy is a principle where all projects in a workspace use the same version of a dependency.

Cf. Single Version Policy by Nx

Cf. 📺 The Diamond Problem by Rachel Potvin

Task​

A task is an action that can be performed on a project in an Nx workspace (e.g. build, lint, test, codegen). Each project can use a different implementation and configuration for a given task.

Workspace​

An Nx Workspace is nothing more than an Nx repository.

This should not be confused with NPM workspaces where each project is called a workspace.