Configuring CI Using GitHub Actions and Nx
GitHub can track the last successful run on the main branch and use this as a reference point for the BASE. The Nx Set SHAs provides a convenient implementation of this functionality which you can drop into your existing CI config. To understand why knowing the last successful build is important for the affected command, check out the in-depth explanation in Actions's docs.
Below is an example of a GitHub setup for an Nx workspace - building and testing only what is affected. For more details on how the action is used, head over to the official docs.
1name: CI
2on:
3  push:
4    branches:
5      - main
6  pull_request:
7
8jobs:
9  main:
10    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
11    steps:
12      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
13        with:
14          fetch-depth: 0
15      - uses: nrwl/nx-set-shas@v3
16      - run: npm ci
17
18      - run: npx nx format:check
19      - run: npx nx affected -t lint --parallel=3
20      - run: npx nx affected -t test --parallel=3 --configuration=ci
21      - run: npx nx affected -t build --parallel=3
22The pr and main jobs implement the CI workflow. Setting timeout-minutes is needed only if you have very slow tasks.
If you're using this action in the context of a branch you may need to add run: "git branch --track main origin/main" before running the nx affected command since origin/main won't exist.
Distributed CI with Nx Cloud
Read more about Distributed Task Execution (DTE).
1name: CI
2on:
3  push:
4    branches:
5      - main
6  pull_request:
7
8jobs:
9  main:
10    name: Nx Cloud - Main Job
11    uses: nrwl/ci/.github/workflows/nx-cloud-main.yml@v0.13.0
12    with:
13      number-of-agents: 3
14      parallel-commands: |
15        npx nx-cloud record -- npx nx format:check
16      parallel-commands-on-agents: |
17        npx nx affected -t lint --parallel=3 & npx nx affected -t test --parallel=3 --configuration=ci & npx nx affected -t build --parallel=3
18
19  agents:
20    name: Nx Cloud - Agents
21    uses: nrwl/ci/.github/workflows/nx-cloud-agents.yml@v0.13.0
22    with:
23      number-of-agents: 3
24You can also use our ci-workflow generator to generate the workflow file.
Custom distributed CI with Nx Cloud
Our reusable GitHub workflow represents a good set of defaults that works for a large number of our users. However, reusable GitHub workflows come with their limitations.
If the existing workflow doesn't satisfy your needs you should create your custom workflow. This is what the above config roughly encapsulates:
1name: CI
2on:
3  push:
4    branches:
5      - main
6  pull_request:
7
8env:
9  NX_CLOUD_DISTRIBUTED_EXECUTION: true
10  NX_CLOUD_DISTRIBUTED_EXECUTION_AGENT_COUNT: 3
11  NX_BRANCH: ${{ github.event.number || github.ref_name }}
12  NX_CLOUD_ACCESS_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NX_CLOUD_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
13  NX_CLOUD_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NX_CLOUD_AUTH_TOKEN }}
14  NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
15
16jobs:
17  main:
18    name: Nx Cloud - Main Job
19    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
20    steps:
21      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
22        name: Checkout [Pull Request]
23        if: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' }}
24        with:
25          # By default, PRs will be checked-out based on the Merge Commit, but we want the actual branch HEAD.
26          ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
27          # We need to fetch all branches and commits so that Nx affected has a base to compare against.
28          fetch-depth: 0
29
30      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
31        name: Checkout [Default Branch]
32        if: ${{ github.event_name != 'pull_request' }}
33        with:
34          # We need to fetch all branches and commits so that Nx affected has a base to compare against.
35          fetch-depth: 0
36
37      # Set node/npm/yarn versions using volta
38      - uses: volta-cli/action@v4
39        with:
40          package-json-path: '${{ github.workspace }}/package.json'
41
42      - name: Use the package manager cache if available
43        uses: actions/cache@v3
44        with:
45          path: ~/.npm
46          key: ${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
47          restore-keys: |
48            ${{ runner.os }}-
49
50      - name: Install dependencies
51        run: npm ci
52
53      - name: Initialize the Nx Cloud distributed CI run
54        run: npx nx-cloud start-ci-run
55
56      - name: Run commands in parallel
57        run: |
58          pids=()
59          # list of commands to be run on main has env flag NX_CLOUD_DISTRIBUTED_EXECUTION set to false
60          NX_CLOUD_DISTRIBUTED_EXECUTION=false npx nx-cloud record -- npx nx format:check & pids+=($!)
61
62          # list of commands to be run on agents
63          npx nx affected -t lint --parallel=3 & 
64          pids+=($!)
65
66          npx nx affected -t test --parallel=3 --configuration=ci & 
67          pids+=($!)
68
69          npx nx affected -t build --parallel=3 & 
70          pids+=($!)
71
72          # run all commands in parallel and bail if one of them fails
73          for pid in ${pids[*]}; do
74            if ! wait $pid; then
75              exit 1
76            fi
77          done
78
79          exit 0
80
81      - name: Stop all running agents for this CI run
82        # It's important that we always run this step, otherwise in the case of any failures in preceding non-Nx steps, the agents will keep running and waste billable minutes
83        if: ${{ always() }}
84        run: npx nx-cloud stop-all-agents
85
86  agents:
87    name: Agent ${{ matrix.agent }}
88    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
89    strategy:
90      matrix:
91        agent: [1, 2, 3]
92    steps:
93      - name: Checkout
94        uses: actions/checkout@v3
95
96      # Set node/npm/yarn versions using volta
97      - uses: volta-cli/action@v4
98        with:
99          package-json-path: '${{ github.workspace }}/package.json'
100
101      - name: Use the package manager cache if available
102        uses: actions/cache@v3
103        with:
104          path: ~/.npm
105          key: ${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
106          restore-keys: |
107            ${{ runner.os }}-
108
109      - name: Install dependencies
110        run: npm ci
111
112      - name: Start Nx Agent ${{ matrix.agent }}
113        run: npx nx-cloud start-agent
114        env:
115          NX_AGENT_NAME: ${{ matrix.agent }}
116