Import an Existing Project into an Nx Workspace

Nx can help with the process of moving an existing project into an Nx repository. In order to communicate clearly about this process, we'll call the repository we're moving the project out of the "source repository" and the repository we're moving the project into the "destination repository". Here's an example of what those repositories might look like.

Source Repository
1└─ inventory-app 2 ├─ ... 3 ├─ public 4 │ └─ ... 5 ├─ src 6 │ ├─ assets 7 │ ├─ App.css 8 │ ├─ App.tsx 9 │ ├─ index.css 10 │ └─ main.tsx 11 ├─ .eslintrc.cjs 12 ├─ index.html 13 ├─ package.json 14 ├─ README.md 15 ├─ tsconfig.json 16 ├─ tsconfig.node.json 17 └─ vite.config.ts 18
Destination Repository
1└─ myorg 2 ├─ ... 3 ├─ packages 4 │ └─ ... 5 ├─ apps 6 │ ├─ account 7 │ │ └─ ... 8 │ ├─ cart 9 │ │ └─ ... 10 │ └─ users 11 │ └─ ... 12 ├─ .eslintrc.json 13 ├─ .gitignore 14 ├─ nx.json 15 ├─ package.json 16 ├─ README.md 17 └─ tsconfig.base.json 18

In this example, the source repository contains a single application while the destination repository is already a monorepo. You can also import a project from a sub-directory of the source repository (if the source repository is a monorepo, for instance). The nx import command uses the following syntax:

❯

nx import [sourceRepository] [destinationDirectory]

Make sure to run nx import from the destination repository, like one of these commands:

~/myorg❯

nx import ../inventory-app apps/inventory

~/myorg❯

nx import https://github.com/myorg/inventory-app.git apps/inventory

Source Repository Local or Remote

The sourceRepository argument for nx import can be either a local file path to the source git repository on your local machine or a git URL to the hosted git repository.

The nx import command will:

  • Maintain the git history from the source repository
  • Suggest adding plugins to the destination repository based on the newly added project code

Every code base is different, so you will still need to manually:

  • Manage any dependency conflicts between the two code bases
  • Migrate over code outside the source project's root folder that the source project depends on

Manage Dependencies

If both repositories are managed with npm workspaces, the imported project will have all its required dependencies defined in its package.json file that is moved over. You'll need to make sure that the destination repository includes the destinationDirectory in the workspaces defined in the root package.json.

If the destination repository is enforcing a single version policy, you'll need to identify all the required dependencies of the imported project and merge those dependencies into the root package.json of the destination repository. If there are significant version conflicts between the imported project and the destination repository, it may be simpler to enable npm workspaces temporarily so that merging dependency conflicts can happen in a separate PR.

Migrate External Code and Configuration

Few projects are completely isolated from the rest of the repository where they are located. After nx import has run, here are a few types of external code references that you should account for:

  • Project configuration files that extend root configuration files
  • Scripts outside the project folder that are required by the project
  • Local project dependencies that are not present or have a different name in the destination repository
Importing Multiple Projects

If multiple projects need to be imported into the destination repository, start with the leaf projects in the dependency graph (the projects without any dependencies) and then work your way up to the top level applications. This way every project that is imported into the destination repository will have its required dependencies available.