CLI Overview

A reference for the Nx command-line interface, including all major commands and global flags.

The Nx CLI (nx) is the primary interface for running tasks, generating code, managing migrations, and visualizing your workspace. Every command follows the pattern:

nx <command> [options]

Getting help

Pass --help to any command to see its options and usage:

nx --help
nx run --help
nx affected --help

To list available generators for a plugin:

nx list @nx/react

Commands

run

Run a single target for a project. Supports configuration overrides and cache control.

generate

Scaffold or update source code using a generator from any installed Nx plugin.

affected

Run a target only for projects that are affected by recent changes in your git history.

run-many

Run one or more targets across a specific set of projects in the workspace.

migrate

Update Nx and its plugins, and apply the resulting code migrations automatically.

release

Orchestrate versioning, changelog generation, and publishing of packages.

graph

Visualize the project dependency graph or task graph in an interactive browser UI.

Other commands

Command	Description
nx add <plugin>	Add an Nx plugin to the workspace
nx init	Initialize Nx in an existing repository
nx list	List installed plugins and available generators
nx show project <name>	Show configuration and targets for a project
nx sync	Run sync generators to keep the workspace consistent
nx repair	Repair the workspace configuration
nx reset	Clear the local Nx cache
nx report	Report Nx version and environment information
nx format:write	Format workspace files using Prettier
nx format:check	Check that workspace files are formatted
nx watch	Watch for file changes and re-run a target
nx exec	Execute a shell command for each project
nx connect	Connect to Nx Cloud

Global flags

These flags are accepted by most Nx commands.

--verbose · boolean

Prints additional information about the commands (e.g., stack traces). Also enabled by setting NX_VERBOSE_LOGGING=true.

--version · boolean

Print the current version of Nx and exit.

--help · boolean

Show help for the command and exit.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
NX_VERBOSE_LOGGING	Set to true to enable verbose logging globally
NX_PARALLEL	Default number of parallel tasks (overridden by --parallel)
NX_DEFAULT_OUTPUT_STYLE	Default output style for task runs
NX_INTERACTIVE	Set to false to disable interactive prompts in generators
NX_DRY_RUN	Set to true to enable dry-run mode for generators
NX_TUI	Set to true or false to force-enable or force-disable the Terminal UI
NX_TUI_AUTO_EXIT	Controls automatic TUI exit behavior after tasks finish