Nx 18: Is there a way to disable a target for a specific app?

[tukusejssirs]

Related: #22099

---

I want to disable an automatically interred target (like test) for a project.

More specifically, my use case is @jscutlery/semver. This plugin uses a workspace-level project.json file (I use synced versioning, i.e. one version for all packages). It works as expected, however due to having a project.json in the workspace root folder, Nx considers that folder a package root folder and thus shows it in nx show projects.

It also infers the following test target:

  "targets": {
    "test": {
      "options": {
        "cwd": ".",
        "command": "jest"
      },
      "cache": true,
      "inputs": [
        "default",
        "^production",
        {
          "externalDependencies": [
            "jest"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "outputs": [
        "{projectRoot}/coverage"
      ],
      "executor": "nx:run-commands",
      "configurations": {}
    }
  }

Note that I already create some custom targets using @jscutler/semver which are not shown in nx show project $workspace ($workspace being the value of name in the workspace-level project.json`).

I tried to overried the test target using the following one, however, it is ignored and nx show project $workspace still returns the target above.

"test": {
    "executor": "nx:run-commands",
    "options": {
    "command": "echo -n"
  }
}

Ideally, I don’t want to infer any task to the workspace-level project.json (i.e. it should be used by Nx to run the explicitly specified targets only).

A consequence of this is that now I cannot use nx generate command, as it throws an error:

# pnpm nx g @nx/nest:app --directory apps --name cli --projectNameAndRootFormat as-provided --strict true --dry-run --verbose
 NX  Generating @nx/nest:application


 NX   Cannot find configuration for '$workspace_name'


Error: Cannot find configuration for '$workspace_name'
    at readProjectConfiguration ($workspace_root/node_modules/.pnpm/nx@18.0.5_@swc-node+register@1.8.0_@swc+core@1.4.2/node_modules/nx/src/generators/utils/project-configuration.js:99:15)
    at createJestConfig ($workspace_root/node_modules/.pnpm/@nx+jest@18.0.5_@swc-node+register@1.8.0_@swc+core@1.4.2_@types+node@20.11.21_nx@18.0.5_ts-node@10.9.2_typescript@5.3.3/node_modules/@nx/jest/src/generators/configuration/lib/create-jest-config.js:46:77)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async configurationGeneratorInternal ($workspace_root/node_modules/.pnpm/@nx+jest@18.0.5_@swc-node+register@1.8.0_@swc+core@1.4.2_@types+node@20.11.21_nx@18.0.5_ts-node@10.9.2_typescript@5.3.3/node_modules/@nx/jest/src/generators/configuration/configuration.js:62:5)
    at async applicationGeneratorInternal ($workspace_root/node_modules/.pnpm/@nx+node@18.0.5_@swc-node+register@1.8.0_@swc+core@1.4.2_@types+node@20.11.21_nx@18.0.5_ts-node@10.9.2_typescript@5.3.3/node_modules/@nx/node/src/generators/application/application.js:325:26)
    at async applicationGenerator ($workspace_root/node_modules/.pnpm/@nx+node@18.0.5_@swc-node+register@1.8.0_@swc+core@1.4.2_@types+node@20.11.21_nx@18.0.5_ts-node@10.9.2_typescript@5.3.3/node_modules/@nx/node/src/generators/application/application.js:265:12)
    at async applicationGeneratorInternal ($workspace_root/node_modules/.pnpm/@nx+nest@18.0.5_@swc-node+register@1.8.0_@swc+core@1.4.2_@types+node@20.11.21_nx@18.0.5_ts-node@10.9.2_typescript@5.3.3/node_modules/@nx/nest/src/generators/application/application.js:25:33)
    at async $workspace_root/node_modules/.pnpm/nx@18.0.5_@swc-node+register@1.8.0_@swc+core@1.4.2/node_modules/nx/src/command-line/generate/generate.js:241:26
    at async handleErrors ($workspace_root/node_modules/.pnpm/nx@18.0.5_@swc-node+register@1.8.0_@swc+core@1.4.2/node_modules/nx/src/utils/params.js:9:16)
    at async Object.handler ($workspace_root/node_modules/.pnpm/nx@18.0.5_@swc-node+register@1.8.0_@swc+core@1.4.2/node_modules/nx/src/command-line/generate/command-object.js:13:22)

The only way to work around the issue is to (temporarily) rename the workspace-level project.json, for example:

1. mv package.json{,.bak};
2. remove the Nx cache using nx reset;
3. use nx generate;
4. rename it back using mv package.json{.bak,}).

I suggest to add a concreate example how to override a target/task in the docs. You actually link to that page from Overriding Inferred Task Configuration, however, nothing works for me in this case.

[tukusejssirs]

I have just found out that I can override a target in an actual package (under apps/ or libs/) using echo -n, however, I still have no idea how can I disable it altogether.

[jogelin]

Related: ⛔ Target Exclusions in Nx Project Crystal

[tukusejssirs]

What do you mean by wrapping approach? 🤔

I know of no solution or workaround of this issue, apart from the one described in the OP (renaming the workspace-level project.json and resetting the Nx cache).

[jogelin]

Sorry, I didn't use the same terminology.

I meant the Custom plugin, the one you implemented:

I have created NoopSkipProjects type and chaned the options type to (JestPluginOptions & NoopSkipProjects) | undefined, as it was not typed correctly.

Is this working for you?

[tukusejssirs]

Oh, no, it didn’t work, I only fixed the typings (a bit).

The error is all the same whenever I use a custom plugin from your article.

Note that I haven’t tested it with a package-level project.json nor vanilla Nx workspace. I want to do that later today (probably ~5pm UTC).

[tukusejssirs]

I have just tested this in a non-vanilla Nx workspace to override the test target of a cli-e2e app, however, while nx show project works without any problems, test was not disabled (it would still run jest). Moreover, when I reset Nx cache, it would return the same error as I have posted above.

Next to test this in a vanilla Nx repo …

[tukusejssirs]

Disabling test target of an app does not work for me. Bellow is how I tested it using Nx 18.0.8.

Note that I have tested it on Linux in Bash and that I used jq to update the JSON files.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Note: Tested with `nx@18.0.5`

# Variables
repo_parent_folder='/home/ts/git/test'  # optional; by default, CWD is used
app_name='disable-nx-target'
workspace_name='test-workspace'

# Define `$repo_parent_folder` if not defined
repo_parent_folder="$(realpath "${repo_parent_folder:-$PWD}")"

# Create an Nx monorepo workspace
cd "$repo_parent_folder" && pnpx create-nx-workspace@latest \
  --appName "$app_name" \
  --defaultBase main \
  --docker true \
  --e2eTestRuner playwright \
  --framework nestjs \
  --name "$workspace_name" \
  --nxCloud skip \
  --nx_docker false \
  --pm pnpm \
  --preset nest \
  --workspaceType integrated

cd "$repo_parent_folder/$workspace_name" && \
  pnpm i && \
  pnpm -D i @nx/devkit

mkdir -p "$repo_parent_folder/$workspace_name/tools/nx-plugins"

# Configure the override
cat << EOF > "$repo_parent_folder/$workspace_name/tools/nx-plugins/skip-jest-plugin.ts"
import {readdirSync} from 'node:fs'
import {dirname, join} from 'node:path'

import {
  CreateNodes,
  CreateNodesContext,
  CreateNodesResult,
  joinPathFragments,
  ProjectConfiguration,
  readJsonFile
} from '@nx/devkit'
import {
  createNodes as createJestNodes,
  JestPluginOptions
} from '@nx/jest/plugin'

type NoopSkipProjects = {
  /**
   * List of projects for which a particular target should be disabled
   */
  skipProjects?: string[]
}

export const createNodes: CreateNodes<
  JestPluginOptions & {skipProjects: string[]}
> = [
  createJestNodes[0],
  async (
    configFilePath: string,
    options: (JestPluginOptions & NoopSkipProjects) | undefined,
    context: CreateNodesContext
  ): Promise<CreateNodesResult> => {
    const projectRoot: string = dirname(configFilePath)

    const siblingFiles = readdirSync(join(context.workspaceRoot, projectRoot))

    if (!siblingFiles.includes('project.json')) {
      return {}
    }

    const path = joinPathFragments(projectRoot, 'project.json')
    const projectJson = readJsonFile<ProjectConfiguration>(path)

    if (options.skipProjects.includes(projectJson.name)) {
      return {}
    }

    return createJestNodes[1](configFilePath, options, context)
  }
]
EOF

# Disable the `test` target for the app
skipProjectsPlugin="[{
  \"plugin\": \"./tools/nx-plugins/skip-jest-plugin.ts\",
  \"options\": {
    \"targetName\": \"test\",
    \"skipProjects\": [\"$app_name\"]
  }
}]"

cat <<< "$(jq --argjson skipProjectsPlugin "$skipProjectsPlugin" '.plugins += $skipProjectsPlugin' "$repo_parent_folder/$workspace_name/nx.json")" > "$repo_parent_folder/$workspace_name/nx.json"

[tukusejssirs]

In #22099 (the discussion description), the following is wrong:

Adding targets: like @nx/jest/plugin which only adds a target test if you have the jest.config.* file

Adding test when their is a Jest config is bad, as e2e tests have special target name (e2e). Fixing this would probably fix my issue directly, howevee, adding the ability to disable a target per project. And I’d go even one step further: disable inferring any targets for worspace-level project.json.

[tukusejssirs]

@FrozenPandaz, sorry to ping you, however, no one from Nx contributors reacted on this discussion (you all are busy, presumably).

Basically, in Nx 18 (with Crystal), I’d like to be able to disable a target for specific app (e.g. test target for apps named *-e2e). Also, I wish the workspace-level project.json would be ignored altogether by the target infer function (i.e. no target should be inferred into a workspace-level project.json).

Thanks in advance! 🙏

Note that I have re-tested this and the target inferring still works like this in Nx 18.3.2.