Configuring Version Prefix for Dependencies

This guide explains how to configure a custom version prefix in Nx Release using the versionPrefix option. The version prefix allows you to automatically add a specific prefix format to dependencies, providing control over how dependency versions are specified in your project's manifest files (such as package.json, Cargo.toml, etc.).

The versionPrefix Option

The versionPrefix option controls which prefix is applied to dependency versions during the versioning process. By default, versionPrefix is set to "auto", which selects a prefix format (either "", "~", "^", or "=") by respecting what is already in the manifest file.

For example, having the following package.json file as an example manifest:

{
  "name": "my-package",
  "version": "0.1.1",
  "dependencies": {
    "dependency-one": "~1.2.3",
    "dependency-two": "^2.3.4",
    "dependency-three": "3.0.0"
  }
}

Then next patch bump will be:

{
  "name": "my-package",
  "version": "0.1.2",
  "dependencies": {
    "dependency-one": "~1.2.4",
    "dependency-two": "^2.3.4",
    "dependency-three": "3.0.0"
  }
}

Preserving the prefix for dependency-one and dependency-two and continuing to use no prefix for dependency-three.

Available Prefix Options

You can set versionPrefix to one of the following values:

• "auto": Automatically chooses a prefix based on the existing declaration in the manifest file. This is the default value.
• "": Uses the exact version without a prefix.
• "~": Specifies compatibility with patch-level updates.
• "^": Specifies compatibility with minor-level updates.
• "=": Locks the version to an exact match (the = is not commonly used in the JavaScript ecosystem, but is in others such as Cargo for Rust).

Example configuration:

Breaking Changes in Nx 21

In Nx v21, the configuration structure has changed. The example below shows the Nx 21 format.

For Nx 20, wrap the versionPrefix option inside a generatorOptions object.

{
  "release": {
    "version": {
      "versionPrefix": "~"
    }
  }
}

Configuring Version Prefix in nx.json or project.json

To set the versionPrefix option globally or for a specific project, add it to either your nx.json or project.json configuration files:

{
  "release": {
    "version": {
      "versionPrefix": "^" // or "", "~", "^", "=" depending on your preference
    }
  }
}

With the versionPrefix option set to ^, your package.json dependencies might look like this:

{
  "name": "my-package",
  "version": "0.1.1",
  "dependencies": {
    "dependency-one": "^1.0.0",
    "dependency-two": "^2.3.4",
    "dependency-three": "^3.0.0"
  }
}

This configuration helps enforce a consistent approach to dependency management, allowing flexibility in how updates to dependencies are tracked and managed across your project.