nx-cloud CLI

npx nx-cloud login

To provision a local personal access token to access Nx Cloud features run npx nx-cloud login. This will open your browser to the Nx Cloud application and after signing in will generate a personal access token and save it in a configuration file locally called nxcloud.ini.

This command is the same as running npx nx login

We look for this file at the following locations:

  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nxcloud/nxcloud.ini
  • $HOME/config/nxcloud/nxcloud.ini
  • $HOME/.nxcloud.ini

If we don't find an existing config file, we create one at $HOME/config/nxcloud/nxcloud.ini

The format of this file is as follows:

1[https://cloud\.nx\.app] 2personalAccessToken=SOME_ACCESS_TOKEN 3

If you have access to multiple instances of the Nx Cloud application (e.g. self-hosted Enterprise and our managed instance), each instance will be saved to this file under its URL.

Our managed instance at https://cloud.nx.app is the default. To provision a personal access token from an alternative instance of Nx Cloud pass the URL as a positional parameter, e.g.

1npx nx-cloud login https://nx-cloud.my-domain.app 2

npx nx-cloud logout

To revoke a personal access token from your local environment, run npx nx-cloud logout. This will remove the personal access token from the locally initialized configuration file and also invalidate the token from the Nx Cloud application. You will be prompted to remove a single token or all tokens from your local environment.

npx nx-cloud configure

To provision more than one personal access token for multiple contexts (e.g. home and work machines) you can use the personal access tokens page under your Nx Cloud profile. To save a personal access token to your local nxcloud.ini file without needing to edit the file yourself call nx-cloud configure like this:

1npx nx-cloud configure --personalAccessToken=SOME_ACCESS_TOKEN 2

To configure multiple tokens for different instances of the Nx Cloud app, you can pass the URL as follows:

1npx nx-cloud configure --personalAccessToken=SOME_ACCESS_TOKEN --nx-cloud-url=https://nx-cloud.my-domain.app 2

npx nx-cloud convert-to-nx-cloud-id

When logging into Nx Cloud with a Personal Access Token, your nx.json file needs to include the nxCloudId property, which acts as a unique identifier for your workspace. If you have been using the previous nxCloudAccessToken to connect, simply run npx nx-cloud convert-to-nx-cloud-id to automatically update your configuration to use nxCloudId.

If you are connecting to Nx Cloud with a workspace that is version 19.6 or lower, this command will also install the latest version of the Nx Cloud npm package and add it into your package.json. Only Nx versions 19.7 and higher natively support the nxCloudId property in the nx.json file; for versions 19.6 and lower, the Nx Cloud npm package will be needed to use that property.

npx nx-cloud start-ci-run

At the beginning of your main job, invoke npx nx-cloud start-ci-run. This tells Nx Cloud that the following series of command correspond to the same CI run.

Do not run start-ci-run locally

npx nx-cloud start-ci-run generates a temporary marker file that can cause a local Nx repo to behave as if it is a part of a CI run. This can cause strange behavior like Nx commands timing out or throwing unexpected errors. To discourage this from happening, this command will run a check to see if it is running in a CI environment. You can bypass this check with npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --force.

If you accidentally run this command locally, remove all generated marker files with npx nx-cloud cleanup.

You can configure your CI run by passing the following flags:

--distribute-on

By default, npx nx-cloud start-ci-run is intended for use with Nx Agents and expects --distribute-on to be configured. It will output a warning if this flag is not set. If you are running a distributed execution with a legacy setup without Nx Agents, you can pass --distribute-on=manual to disable this warning.

This command tells Nx Cloud how many agents to use (and what launch templates to use) to distribute tasks. E.g., npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --distribute-on="8 linux-medium-js" will distribute CI using 8 agents that are initialized using the linux-medium-js launch template.

You can also define the configuration in a file and reference it as follows: npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --distribute-on=".nx/workflows/dynamic-changesets.yaml".

.nx/workflows/dynamic-changesets.yaml
1distribute-on: 2 small-changeset: 3 linux-medium-js 3 medium-changeset: 6 linux-medium-js 4 large-changeset: 10 linux-medium-js 5

--require-explicit-completion

By default, Nx Cloud will monitor the main CI job and once that completes it will complete the associated CIPE object on the Nx Cloud side. You can disable this by passing --require-explicit-completion. In this case, you will have to add npx nx-cloud complete-ci-run.

--stop-agents-after

You can tell Nx Cloud to terminate agents after it sees a certain target or group of targets: npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --stop-agents-after=build,test,e2e.

Tip: Be as specific as possible when listing targets

For the best results, always tell Nx Cloud about all targets that should be expected during your pipeline. This will prevent your CI Pipeline Execution from ending prematurely, cutting off any unfinished work.

Whether you are running commands serially or in parallel (through use of the & operand or discrete jobs), you should include one or more targets from each command.

Incorrect example:

1- run: npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --stop-agents-after=build 2- run: nx affected -t build 3- run: nx affected -t lint 4- run: nx affected -t test 5

Nx Cloud will only look for the presence of a build target before determining your pipeline can be shut down. Since both lint and test will only run after build is complete, your pipeline would end before all intended work is executed.

Corrected example:

1- run: npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --stop-agents-after=lint,test,build 2- run: nx affected -t lint 3- run: nx affected -t test 4- run: nx affected -t build 5

Advanced shutdown targeting

In advanced pipeline setups, it is possible that you want to run multiple commands with the same target, but with distinct configurations. An example of this may be doing static translations for different locales during your builds.

1- run: npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --stop-agents-after=build 2- run: nx affected -t build --configuration=locale-en 3- run: nx affected -t build --configuration=locale-es 4

In this case, the build target will be executed twice, once with the locale-en configuration and once with the locale-es configuration. However, Nx Cloud is only looking for the build target to assess whether the CI Pipeline Execution can be marked complete.

To address this, you can pass an optional configuration to make your targets more specific.

1- run: npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --stop-agents-after=build:locale-en,build:locale-es 2- run: nx affected -t build --configuration=locale-en 3- run: nx affected -t build --configuration=locale-es 4

--stop-agents-on-failure

By default, a failure in one of the commands is going to terminate the whole CI run and will stop all the agents. You can disable this as follows: npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --stop-agents-on-failure=false.

--use-dte-by-default

By default, invoking npx nx-cloud start-ci-run will configure Nx to distribute all commands by default. You can disable this as follows: npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --use-dte-by-default=false.

--with-env-vars (Nx Agents Only)

By default, invoking npx nx-cloud start-ci-run will take all environment variables prefixed with NX_ and send them over to Nx Agents. This means that your access token, verbose logging configuration and other Nx-related environment variables will be the same on your main CI jobs and the Nx Agent machines.

If you want to pass other environment variables from the main job to Nx Agents, you can do it as follows: --with-env-vars="VAR1,VAR2". This will set VAR1 and VAR2 on Nx Agents to the same values set on the main job before any steps run.

You can also pass --with-env-vars="auto" which will filter out all OS-specific environment variables and pass the rest to Nx Agents.

Use Caution With 'auto'

Using --with-env-vars="auto" will override any existing environment variables on the Nx Agent, some of which might be critical to the functionality of that machine. In case of unexpected issues on Nx Agents, try fallback to the explicit variable definition using --with-env-vars="VAR1,VAR2,...".

Note: none of the values passed to Nx Agents are stored by Nx Cloud.

Enabling/Disabling Distribution

Invoking npx nx-cloud start-ci-run will tell Nx to distribute by default. You can enable/disable distribution for individual commands as follows:

  • nx affected -t build --agents (explicitly enable distribution)
  • nx affected -t build --no-agents (explicitly disable distribution)

npx nx-cloud stop-all-agents

Same as npx nx-cloud complete-ci-run.

This command tells Nx Cloud to terminate all agents associated with this CI pipeline execution. Invoking this command is not needed anymore. New versions of Nx Cloud can track when the main job terminates and terminate associated agents automatically.