nx generate

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

nx generate <generator> [options]

Alias: nx g

nx generate runs a generator to create, modify, or delete files in your workspace. Generators are provided by Nx plugins (e.g., @nx/react, @nx/js) and can also be defined locally in your workspace.

Arguments

generator · string · required

The generator to run, in the format collection:generator (e.g., @nx/react:application) or just generator if the collection can be inferred.

Options

--dry-run · boolean · default: "false"

Preview the file changes that would be made without actually writing them to disk. Alias: -d. Also enabled by setting NX_DRY_RUN=true.

--interactive · boolean · default: "true"

When false, disables interactive input prompts for generator options. All required options must be provided as flags. Also controlled by NX_INTERACTIVE=false.

--quiet · boolean

Hides logs from file system operations (e.g., CREATE package.json). Cannot be used together with --verbose.

--verbose · boolean

Prints additional information about the generation process, including stack traces on error. Cannot be used together with --quiet.

Listing available generators

Use nx list to discover generators from installed plugins:

# List all installed plugins and their generators
nx list

# List generators for a specific plugin
nx list @nx/react
nx list @nx/js

To see the options for a specific generator, pass --help after the generator name:

nx g @nx/react:application --help
nx g @nx/js:library --help

Examples

Generate a React application

nx generate @nx/react:application myapp

Generator options vary by plugin and generator. Always check the generator’s schema with --help before running.

Workspace generators

You can define your own generators locally in tools/generators. Run them by their name without a collection prefix:

nx generate my-local-generator --name=foo

Or with the local plugin collection:

nx g @my-org/workspace-plugin:my-generator