Fixing Nrwl Nx Monorepo Workspace Dependency Graph Error

If you are working on nx monorepo workspace and if you have notice below error and want to fix it then read this article. “Error: A project without tags cannot depend on any libraries (nx-enforce-module-boundaries)”

How dependency graph works in Nx Monorepo Workspace?

• Nx will create an inventory of project tags.
• Next Nx will compare all of the enforcement rules defined inside the tslint.json file.
• If Nx could not find any rule against a project tag inside the tslint.json file then it will throw error “A project without tags cannot depend on any libraries (nx-enforce-module-boundaries)”

Therefore, Projects without any tags cannot depend on any other projects.

Project Tag for Apps are defined in Nx.json

In our nx.json file we do have the project tags for my application onlinestore-admin, onlinestore-client,onlinestore-dashboard

    "onlinestore-client": {
      "tags": ["scope:itops", "type:onlinestore-client"]
    },
    "onlinestore-admin": {
      "tags": ["scope:itops", "type:onlinestore-admin"]
    },
    "onlinestore-dashboard": {
      "tags": ["scope:itops", "type:onlinestore-dashboard"]
    },

However, Dependency Constraints for App is Missing in Tslint.json

Inside the tslint.json file you can notice we do not have dependency constraints for our applications.

  "nx-enforce-module-boundaries": [
      true,
      {
        "enforceBuildableLibDependency": true,
        "allow": [],
        "depConstraints": [
          {
            "sourceTag": "scope:sales",
            "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": ["scope:sales", "scope:branding"]
          },
          {
            "sourceTag": "type:sales-product-editor",
            "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": [
              "type:sales-product-editor",
              "type:branding-logger",
              "type:branding-layout",
              "type:branding-ng-material"
            ]
          },
          {
            "sourceTag": "type:sales-products",
            "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": [
              "type:sales-products",
              "type:branding-logger",
              "type:branding-layout",
              "type:branding-ng-material"
            ]
          },
          {
            "sourceTag": "scope:customers",
            "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": ["scope:customers", "scope:branding"]
          },
          {
            "sourceTag": "type:customers-user-editor",
            "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": [
              "type:customers-user-editor",
              "type:branding-logger",
              "type:branding-layout",
              "type:branding-ng-material"
            ]
          },
          {
            "sourceTag": "type:customers-users",
            "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": [
              "type:customers-users",
              "type:branding-logger",
              "type:branding-layout",
              "type:branding-ng-material"
            ]
          },
          {
            "sourceTag": "scope:branding",
            "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": ["scope:branding"]
          }
        ]
      }
    ],

So notice since nx is not able to find out any dependency constraints for the projects therefore, it is throwing error.

Solution to Nx Dependency Graph Error

There are 2 options.

1. Either you can allow everyone to access every other projects by using [*] If you add the following, projects without any tags will be able to depend on any other project.

{
  "sourceTag": "*",
  "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": ["*"]
}

However, I would never recommend allowing all project to access other projects.

1. Recommended option is to add the dependency constraints for the application as well. We will explicitly define onlinestore-client and its dependencies.

 {
   "sourceTag": "type:onlinestore-client",
   "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": [
     "type:sales-products",
     "type:customers-users",
     "type:branding-logger",
     "type:branding-layout",
     "type:branding-ng-material"
   ]
 },
 {
   "sourceTag": "type:onlinestore-admin",
   "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": [
     "type:sales-product-editor",
     "type:customers-user-editor",
     "type:branding-logger",
     "type:branding-layout",
     "type:branding-ng-material"
   ]
 },

I did option 2 and notice my errors went away.

Conclusion

Now you learned how to get rid of error “A project without tags cannot depend on any libraries (nx-enforce-module-boundaries)”. If you want to setup dependency boundary within your nx monorepo workspace then consider reading this article: NX Monorepo: Imposing Constraints on Dependency Graph . Sometime you also want to restrict dependencies within your boundary or service. Read this article to learn how can you achieve Enforcing Dependency Constraints Within a Service using Nx Monorepo

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