Publish in CI/CD

Nx Release makes it easy to move your publishing process into your CI/CD pipeline across different package ecosystems.

General Concepts

Automatically Skip Publishing Locally

When running nx release, after the version updates and changelog generation, you will be prompted with the following question:

nx release

...
? Do you want to publish these versions? (y/N) ›

To move publishing into an automated pipeline, you will want to skip publishing when running nx release locally. To do this automatically, use the --skip-publish flag:

nx release --skip-publish

...

Skipped publishing packages.

Use the Publish Subcommand

Nx Release provides a publishing subcommand that performs just the publishing step. Use this in your CI/CD pipeline to publish the packages.

nx release publish

NX   Running target nx-release-publish for 3 projects:

- pkg-1
- pkg-2
- pkg-3

...

Publishing NPM Packages

Example NPM Publish Output

nx release publish

NX   Running target nx-release-publish for 3 projects:

- pkg-1
- pkg-2
- pkg-3

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

> nx run pkg-1:nx-release-publish


📦  @myorg/pkg-1@0.0.2
=== Tarball Contents ===

233B README.md
277B package.json
53B  src/index.ts
61B  src/lib/pkg-1.ts
=== Tarball Details ===
name:          @myorg/pkg-1
version:       0.0.2
filename:      testorg-pkg-1-0.0.2.tgz
package size:  531 B
unpacked size: 624 B
shasum:        {shasum}
integrity:     {integrity}
total files:   12

Published to https://registry.npmjs.org with tag "latest"

> nx run pkg-2:nx-release-publish


📦  @myorg/pkg-2@0.0.2
=== Tarball Contents ===

233B README.md
277B package.json
53B  src/index.ts
61B  src/lib/pkg-2.ts
=== Tarball Details ===
name:          @myorg/pkg-2
version:       0.0.2
filename:      testorg-pkg-2-0.0.2.tgz
package size:  531 B
unpacked size: 624 B
shasum:        {shasum}
integrity:     {integrity}
total files:   12

Published to https://registry.npmjs.org with tag "latest"

> nx run pkg-3:nx-release-publish


📦  @myorg/pkg-3@0.0.2
=== Tarball Contents ===

233B README.md
277B package.json
53B  src/index.ts
61B  src/lib/pkg-3.ts
=== Tarball Details ===
name:          @myorg/pkg-3
version:       0.0.2
filename:      testorg-pkg-3-0.0.2.tgz
package size:  531 B
unpacked size: 624 B
shasum:        {shasum}
integrity:     {integrity}
total files:   12

Published to https://registry.npmjs.org with tag "latest"

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

NX   Successfully ran target nx-release-publish for 3 projects

NPM Publishing in GitHub Actions

A common way to automate publishing NPM packages is via GitHub Actions. An example of a publish workflow is as follows:

./.github/workflows/publish.yml

name: Publish

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - v*.*.*

jobs:
  test:
    name: Publish
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      id-token: write # needed for provenance data generation
    timeout-minutes: 10
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          filter: tree:0

      - name: Install Node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          registry-url: https://registry.npmjs.org/

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install
        shell: bash

      - name: Print Environment Info
        run: npx nx report
        shell: bash

      - name: Publish packages
        run: npx nx release publish
        shell: bash
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
          NPM_CONFIG_PROVENANCE: true

This workflow will install node, install npm dependencies, then run nx release publish to publish the packages. It will run on every push to the repository that creates a tag that matches the pattern v*.*.*. A release process using this workflow is as follows:

1. Run nx release --skip-publish locally. This will create a commit with the version and changelog updates, then create a tag for the new version.
2. Push the changes (including the new tag) to the remote repository with git push && git push --tags.
3. The publish workflow will automatically trigger and publish the packages to the npm registry.

Configure the NODE_AUTH_TOKEN

The NODE_AUTH_TOKEN environment variable is needed to authenticate with the npm registry. In the above workflow, it is passed into the Publish packages step via a GitHub Secret.

Generate a NODE_AUTH_TOKEN for NPM

To generate the correct NODE_AUTH_TOKEN for the npmJS registry specifically, first login to https://www.npmjs.com/. Select your profile icon, then navigate to "Access Tokens". Generate a new Granular Access Token. Ensure that the token has read and write access to both the packages you are publishing and their organization (if applicable). Copy the generated token and add it as a secret to your GitHub repository.

Add the NODE_AUTH_TOKEN to GitHub Secrets

To add the token as a secret to your GitHub repository, navigate to your repository, then select "Settings" > "Secrets and Variables" > "Actions". Add a new Repository Secret with the name NPM_ACCESS_TOKEN and the value of the token you generated in the previous step.

Note: The NPM_ACCESS_TOKEN name is not important other than that it matches the usage in the workflow:

- name: Publish packages
  run: npx nx release publish
  shell: bash
  env:
    NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
    NPM_CONFIG_PROVENANCE: true

NPM Provenance

To verify your packages with npm provenance, set the NPM_CONFIG_PROVENANCE environment variable to true in the step where nx release publish is performed. The workflow will also need the id-token: write permission to generate the provenance data:

jobs:
  test:
    name: Publish
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      id-token: write # needed for provenance data generation

- name: Publish packages
  run: npx nx release publish
  shell: bash
  env:
    NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
    NPM_CONFIG_PROVENANCE: true

Publishing Docker Images experimental

Docker support in Nx is currently experimental and may undergo breaking changes without following semantic versioning.

Nx Cloud Agents Compatibility

Docker operations in nx release are currently supported in standard CI/CD environments like GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins.

For Nx Cloud Agents compatibility, please contact Nx Enterprise support to explore available options for your team.

When using Nx Release with Docker images, the publishing process differs from npm packages.

Docker images are built with the npx nx run-many -t docker:build command, which is the default for preVersionCommand in nx.json.

You may also run the build command manually before running nx release. After the images are built, they are tagged during the versioning phase, then pushed to a registry during the publish phase.

Docker Registry Authentication

Before publishing Docker images, ensure you're authenticated with your Docker registry:

.github/workflows/publish.yml

- name: Login to Docker Hub
  uses: docker/login-action@v2
  with:
    username: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}
    password: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_TOKEN }}

- name: Build and tag Docker images
  run: npx nx release version --dockerVersionScheme=production

- name: Publish Docker images
  run: npx nx release publish

For changelogs, you can run npx nx release changelog <version> locally with the new version from the pipeline. For example, if the new version is 2501.01.be49ad6 you would run npx nx release changelog 2501.01.be49ad6. This will create or update the CHANGELOG.md files in your projects.

Using Different Registries

Configure alternative registries in your nx.json:

nx.json

{
  "release": {
    "docker": {
      "registryUrl": "ghcr.io" // GitHub Container Registry
    }
  }
}

Example GitHub Actions Workflow for Docker

.github/workflows/docker-publish.yml

name: Docker Publish

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: 20

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Build applications
        run: npx nx run-many -t build

      - name: Login to Docker Hub
        uses: docker/login-action@v2
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_TOKEN }}

      - name: Build and tag Docker images
        run: npx nx release version --dockerVersionScheme=production

      - name: Publish Docker images
        run: npx nx release publish