Defining Monorepo Boundaries With Tags
Tags are a way to define boundaries in a monorepo. They are configured in the
project.json file of each project, and they affect which projects can depend on each other.The root
.eslintrc.json file specifies our rules for each tag. We recommend reading this article to get up to speed.Our tags are split in 2 categories. Generic tags and application tags.
Generic tags are based on the frameworks we use and should be used for simple applications and shared libraries.
These are the generic tags ordered from the most generic to more specific.
Tag | Description | Can depend on | Can be depended on by |
|---|---|---|---|
js | Basic JS library. | js | Any project |
node | NodeJS server-side library. | js, node | Any server-side projects. |
dom | JS library designed to run in a browser. | js, dom | Any browser-based project. |
react | React library. | js, dom, react | Any react project. |
nest | NestJS library. | js, node, nest | NestJS projects. |
react-next | NextJS library. | js, dom, react, react-next | NextJS projects. |
react-spa | React library using react-router. | js, dom, react, react-spa | React projects using react-router. |
Simple applications can be tagged with the generic tags above, but applications which have one or more "private" library projects should define their own NX tags, extending one of the generic tags.
It can be one tag which is applied to both the application project and all the associated library projects (like "api"). Or there can be multiple application tags with different rules to segment the library projects (like the "judicial-system" tags).
Tag | Description | Can depend on | Can be depended on by |
|---|---|---|---|
api | API domain project. | js, node, nest, api, client | Other API projects. |
application-system | Application system projects | js, dom, react, react-spa, react, application-system, client | Other application system projects |
application-system-web | Application system web projects | js, dom, react, react-spa, application-system-web, application-system, | Other application system web projects |
application-system-api | Application system api projects | js, node, nest, client, application-system, application-system-api, api, | Other application system api projects |
auth-api | Authentication api projects | js, node, nest, client, auth-api | Other auth APIs |
client | Client projects. | js, node, nest, client | Other clients and application-system |
e2e | Test projects | js, client, application-system | No one |
judicial-system | Judicial system projects | js, judicial-system | Other judicial system projects |
judicial-system-api | Judicial system web projects | js, node, nest, client, judicial-system, judicial-system-api | Other judicial system api projects |
judicial-system-web | Judicial system api projects | js, dom, react, react-spa, judicial-system, judicial-system-web | Other judicial system web projects |
portals | Portal project. | js, dom, react, react-spa, portals | Other portal projects. |
portals-mypages | My pages portal project. | js, dom, react, react-spa, portals, portals-mypages | Other my pages portal projects. |
portals-admin | Admin portal project. | js, dom, react, react-spa, portals, portals-admin | Other admin portal projects. |
Here is a chart that displays how these tags are connected. Each tag can depend on other tags with a full line arrow pointing to it. Dotted lines represents connections between application tags where a project can depend on the tag but not necessarily other tags further up.
flowchart BT;
%% Generic tags
node & dom --> js
react --> dom
react-spa & react-next --> react
nest --> node
%% App tags
judicial-system --> js
api & auth-api & client & application-system-api & judicial-system-api --> nest
application-system & application-system-web & portals & portals-admin & portals-mypages & judicial-system-web --> react-spa
classDef appTag fill:#f9f
class api,auth-api,client,application-system,application-system-web,application-system-api,portals-admin,portals-mypages,judicial-system-api,judicial-system-web,judicial-system appTag
%% Shallow dependencies
api & auth-api -.-> client
application-system -.-> client
application-system-api & application-system-web -.-> application-system
judicial-system-api & judicial-system-web -.-> judicial-system
portals-mypages & portals-mypages -.-> portals
The above tags must be prefixed by one or both of the following prefixes to opt projects into "Can depend on" and "Can be depended on by" rules.
scope:- by applying a scope tag to a project, you are saying that ESLint should enforce project boundaries for that project using the "Can depend on" rules documented above.lib:- lib tags describe what kind of project it is to enforce the "Can be depended on by" rules documented above.
All projects must have a "scope" tag and most libraries should have the same tag as "lib" and "scope".
Later we hope to get rid of the "lib" tags and just have "scope" tags. However, first we need to fix or refactor a few tricky projects.
Generic NextJS application:
{
"tags": ["scope:react-next"]
}
React library which works for both NextJS and React SPA projects.
{
"tags": ["lib:react", "scope:react"]
}
NestJS library.
{
"tags": ["lib:nest", "scope:nest"]
}
A project tagged with "scope:X" can only depend on libs tagged with "lib:Y", "lib:Z", ... - @nrwl/nx/enforce-module-boundaries
Check which file the code is importing and which tags are configured in the importing project and the imported library.
In some cases, your project should not be importing that library, e.g. it's a library belonging to another application, or you're accidentally importing a server side library from a web project. You should look for ways to refactor your code to not depend on that library. For example, you might move the things you need to another shared library which you are allowed to depend on.
If your project should be able to import that library, then there's some issue with the tags which you need to fix.
Either way, feel free to reach out to the core team and ask for guidance.
External checks: Missing nx tags for project boundaries
Our CI checks that all projects have correct tags. If you get this error, it's likely that you forgot to add a "scope:" tag to a new
project.json file. You can re-run the CI check locally by running yarn check-tags.Last modified 1mo ago