@nx-devkit/boundaries

Linter-agnostic Nx plugin: enforces module-boundary depConstraints between tagged projects — the @nx/enforce-module-boundaries idea, without requiring ESLint. Works alongside oxlint, Biome, or no linter at all.

Part of nx-devkit.

Install

bun add -D @nx-devkit/boundaries

Depends on @nx/devkit ^22 || ^23 (installed automatically — nx itself comes from your workspace via devkit's peer range) and typescript >=5 (the import scanner uses the TS parser).

Register

nx add @nx-devkit/boundaries   # runs the init generator — registers the plugin in nx.json

Or manually:

// nx.json
{
  "plugins": [
    {
      "plugin": "@nx-devkit/boundaries",
      "options": {
        "depConstraints": [
          { "sourceTag": "type:app", "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": ["type:feature", "type:util"] },
          { "sourceTag": "type:feature", "onlyDependOnLibsWithTags": ["type:util"] }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Tag your projects

Tags live in each package's package.json — no project.json required:

{ "name": "@acme/web", "nx": { "tags": ["type:app"] } }

Nx merges nx.* metadata into the project whether it was inferred or declared, so nx show project displays the tags identically.

What it does

• Infers one check-boundaries target on the workspace root — only when at least one project declares nx.tags (a tagless workspace would be a false green).
• The executor loads the project graph, scans each tagged project's sources with the TypeScript parser (import, export ... from, import(), require() — comments and strings can't produce false positives), resolves specifiers to workspace projects (relative paths, package names, tsconfig paths), and evaluates depConstraints.
• Violations print file:line — source (tags) cannot depend on target (tags) via "specifier" and fail the target.

Semantics match the official rule: constraints apply when sourceTag matches the importing project's tags; the target must share a tag with onlyDependOnLibsWithTags; untagged sources are permissive; self-imports are always allowed. Tag patterns support wildcards — * matches any project carrying at least one tag, and partial globs like scope:* expand *; in onlyDependOnLibsWithTags, * means "the target must be tagged".

Run

npx nx check-boundaries        # or: npx nx run <root>:check-boundaries
npx nx affected -t check-boundaries

Options

| Option | Default | Description | |---|---|---| | depConstraints | [] | [{ sourceTag, onlyDependOnLibsWithTags }] — same shape as the official rule | | targetName | check-boundaries | Inferred target name on the root project |

Non-goals (v1)

• No circular-dependency detection
• No npm/external-package constraints (bannedExternalImports)
• No auto-fix

License

MIT