Install Nx in a Non-JavaScript Repository

Nx can manage its own installation without requiring a package.json file or a node_modules folder. This type of installation is useful for repositories that may not contain any JavaScript or TypeScript (e.g. .Net or Java based workspaces that want to leverage Nx features). In this setup, the Nx CLI is all contained within a .nx folder.

Globally Install Nx

First globally install Nx using Homebrew (Mac and Linux) or with a manually installed version of Node (any OS).

Homebrew

If you have Homebrew installed, you can install Nx globally with these commands:

brew install nx

Node

If you have Node installed, you can install Nx globally with this command:

npm install --global nx

Usage

You can install Nx in the .nx/installation directory of your repository by running nx init in a directory without a package.json file.

nx init

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.

Global Install

nx build my-project
nx generate application
nx graph

nx shell script

./nx build my-project
./nx generate application
./nx graph

nx.bat

./nx.bat build my-project
./nx.bat generate application
./nx.bat graph