nx/docs/shared/concepts/nx-plugins.md

What Are Nx Plugins?

Nx plugins help developers use a tool or framework with Nx. They allow the plugin author who knows the best way to use a tool with Nx to codify their expertise and allow the whole community to reuse those solutions.

For example, plugins can accomplish the following:

• Configure Nx cache settings for a tool. The @nx/webpack plugin can automatically configure the inputs and outputs for a build task based on the settings in the webpack.config.js file it uses.
• Update tooling configuration when upgrading the tool version. When Storybook 7 introduced a new format for their configuration files, anyone using the @nx/storybook plugin could automatically apply those changes to their repository when upgrading.
• Set up a tool for the first time. With the @nx/playwright plugin installed, you can use the @nx/playwright:configuration code generator to set up Playwright tests in an existing project.
• Run a tool in an advanced way. The @nx/js plugin's @nx/js:tsc executor combines Nx's understanding of your repository with Typescript's native batch mode feature to make your builds even more performant.

Plugin Features

{% cards %} {% card title="Infer tasks" description="Automatically configure Nx settings for tasks based on tooling configuration" type="documentation" url="/concepts/inferred-tasks" /%} {% card title="Generate Code" description="Generate and modify code to set up and use the tool or framework" type="documentation" url="/features/generate-code" /%} {% card title="Maintain Dependencies" description="Automatically update package versions and tooling configuration" type="documentation" url="/features/generate-code" /%} {% card title="Enhance Tooling with Executors" description="Run a tool in an advanced way that may not be possible from the command line" type="documentation" url="/concepts/executors-and-configurations" /%} {% /cards %}

Types of Plugins

{% cards %} {% card title="Official Plugins" description="The API documentation for Nx Plugins maintained by the Nx core team" type="documentation" url="/nx-api" /%} {% card title="Community Plugins" description="Browse the plugin registry to discover plugins created by the community" type="documentation" url="/plugin-registry" /%} {% card title="Build Your Own Plugin" description="Build your own plugin to use internally or share with the community" type="documentation" url="/extending-nx/tutorials/create-plugin" /%} {% /cards %}