Run Language-Agnostic Conformance Rules

The @nx/conformance plugin allows Nx Powerpack and Nx Enterprise users to write and apply rules for your entire workspace that help with consistency, maintainability, reliability and security. Powerpack is available for Nx version 19.8 and higher.

The conformance plugin allows you to encode your own organization's standards so that they can be enforced automatically. Conformance rules can also complement linting tools by enforcing that those tools are configured in the recommended way. The rules are written in TypeScript but can be applied to any language in the codebase or focus entirely on configuration files.

The plugin also provides the following pre-written rules:

• Enforce Project Boundaries: Similar to the Nx ESLint Enforce Module Boundaries rule, but enforces the boundaries on every project dependency, not just those created from TypeScript imports or package.json dependencies.
• Ensure Owners: Require every project to have an owner defined for the @nx/owners plugin

Setup

The @nx/conformance plugin requires an Nx Powerpack or Nx Enterprise license to function. Activating Powerpack is a simple process.

Get a License and Activate Powerpack or Nx EnterpriseUnlock all the features of the Nx CLI

Then, add the Conformance plugin to your workspace.

Conformance Overview

Configure Conformance Rules

Conformance rules are configured in the conformance property of the nx.json file. You can use the pre-defined rules or reference your own custom rule. See the plugin documentation for more details.

nx.json

{
  "conformance": {
    "rules": [
      {
        "rule": "@nx/conformance/enforce-project-boundaries",
        "options": {
          "depConstraints": [
            {
              "sourceTag": "scope:shared",
              "onlyDependOnProjectsWithTags": ["scope:shared"]
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "rule": "@nx/conformance/ensure-owners",
        "projects": ["!experimental-app"]
      },
      {
        "rule": "./tools/local-conformance-rule.ts"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Enforce Rules with the nx conformance and nx conformance:check Commands

The @nx/conformance plugin enables the nx conformance and nx conformance:check commands which check all the configured rules. The difference is that nx conformance will invoke any fix generators on a configured rule automatically, whereas nx conformance:check will only check the current workspace state and show any violations.

Therefore, nx conformance is intended to be run locally while working on a feature branch. nx conformance:check should be added to the beginning of your CI process so that the conformance rules are enforced for every PR.

Nx CLI

- name: Enforce all conformance rules
  run: npx nx conformance:check

Nx Cloud

- name: Enforce all conformance rules
  run: npx nx-cloud record -- npx nx conformance:check

Use npx nx-cloud record -- to capture the logs for nx conformance:check in the Nx Cloud dashboard.

Nx Cloud w/ Enterprise Plan

- name: Enforce all conformance rules
  run: npx nx-cloud record -- npx nx-cloud conformance:check

Here we are using the nx-cloud CLI to run the conformance:check command so that we can hook into the power of Conformance rules configured in your Nx Cloud Enterprise organization. Learn more about conformance rules in Nx Cloud.

If a valid Powerpack license is not available to the workspace (either locally or via Nx Cloud), the nx conformance and nx conformance:check commands will fail without checking any rules.

Taking things further with Nx Cloud Enterprise

Organizations on the Nx Cloud Enterprise plan can publish custom conformance rules to their Nx Cloud organization without the friction of a custom registry, and then configure the rules to apply to the workspaces in their organization automatically when nx-cloud conformance or nx-cloud conformance:check is run (note that the nx-cloud CLI is used in this case in order to handle the authentication with Nx Cloud).

The Powerpack license will be applied automatically via Nx Cloud in all contexts, and so there is zero setup required for the end developer.

Simply add an appropriate invocation of the nx-cloud conformance:check command to your CI process and all cloud configured rules will be applied and merged with any local rules:

- name: Enforce all conformance rules
  run: npx nx-cloud record -- npx nx-cloud conformance:check

Learn more about publishing and configuring conformance rules in Nx Cloud.