Configuring CI Using Azure Pipelines and Nx

Below is an example of an Azure Pipelines setup for an Nx workspace only building and testing what is affected.

Unlike GitHub Actions and CircleCI, you don't have the metadata to help you track the last successful run on main. In the example below, the base is set to HEAD~1 (for push) or branching point (for pull requests), but a more robust solution would be to tag a SHA in the main job once it succeeds, and then use this tag as a base. See the nx-tag-successful-ci-run and nx-set-shas (version 1 implements tagging mechanism) repos for more information.

We also have to set NX_BRANCH explicitly.

trigger:
  - main
pr:
  - main

variables:
  CI: 'true'
  ${{ if eq(variables['Build.Reason'], 'PullRequest') }}:
    NX_BRANCH: $(System.PullRequest.PullRequestNumber)
    TARGET_BRANCH: $[replace(variables['System.PullRequest.TargetBranch'],'refs/heads/','origin/')]
    BASE_SHA: $(git merge-base $(TARGET_BRANCH) HEAD)
  ${{ if ne(variables['Build.Reason'], 'PullRequest') }}:
    NX_BRANCH: $(Build.SourceBranchName)
    BASE_SHA: $(git rev-parse HEAD~1)
  HEAD_SHA: $(git rev-parse HEAD)

jobs:
  - job: main
    pool:
      vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
    steps:
      - script: npm ci

      - script: npx nx workspace-lint
      - script: npx nx format:check

      - script: npx nx affected --base=$(BASE_SHA) --target=lint --parallel=3
      - script: npx nx affected --base=$(BASE_SHA) --target=test --parallel=3 --configuration=ci
      - script: npx nx affected --base=$(BASE_SHA) --target=build --parallel=3

The main job implements the CI workflow.

Distributed CI with Nx Cloud

In order to use distributed task execution, we need to start agents and set the NX_CLOUD_DISTRIBUTED_EXECUTION flag to true.

Read more about the Distributed CI setup with Nx Cloud.

trigger:
  - main
pr:
  - main

variables:
  CI: 'true'
  ${{ if eq(variables['Build.Reason'], 'PullRequest') }}:
    NX_BRANCH: $(System.PullRequest.PullRequestNumber)
    TARGET_BRANCH: $[replace(variables['System.PullRequest.TargetBranch'],'refs/heads/','origin/')]
    BASE_SHA: $(git merge-base $(TARGET_BRANCH) HEAD)
  ${{ if ne(variables['Build.Reason'], 'PullRequest') }}:
    NX_BRANCH: $(Build.SourceBranchName)
    BASE_SHA: $(git rev-parse HEAD~1)
  HEAD_SHA: $(git rev-parse HEAD)

jobs:
  - job: agents
    strategy:
      parallel: 3
    displayName: Nx Cloud Agent
    pool:
      vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
    steps:
      - script: npm ci
      - script: npx nx-cloud start-agent

  - job: main
    displayName: Nx Cloud Main
    pool:
      vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
    steps:
      - script: npm ci
      - script: npx nx-cloud start-ci-run --stop-agents-after="build"

      - script: npx nx-cloud record -- npx nx workspace-lint
      - script: npx nx-cloud record -- npx nx format:check --base=$(BASE_SHA) --head=$(HEAD_SHA)
      - script: npx nx affected --base=$(BASE_SHA) --head=$(HEAD_SHA) --target=lint --parallel=3 & npx nx affected --base=$(BASE_SHA) --head=$(HEAD_SHA) --target=test --parallel=3 --configuration=ci & npx nx affected --base=$(BASE_SHA) --head=$(HEAD_SHA) --target=build --parallel=3

You can also use our ci-workflow generator to generate the pipeline file.