feat(release): revamped nx release version implementation

[JamesHenry]

This PR provides a new implementation for the versioning stage of nx release which brings a ton of benefits.

Previously unsupported/impossible features now available:

• It is possible to have dependencies which flow across release group boundaries, therefore updateDependents will work across group boundaries as well.
• It is possible to update multiple manifests (such as package.json) for a single versioning execution. For example, updating the version and dependencies in both your source and dist package.json for a project.

Massively improved extensibility for non-JS languages/ecosystems:

• The ReleaseVersionGenerator abstraction was distinctly suboptimal because it required each plugin to reimplement a bunch of core business logic related to resolving tags from git, combining current versions and specifiers to produce new semver values, deleting version plans after use etc.
  • It is now been replaced by the VersionActions class, which exclusively deals with the aspects that make that language/ecosystem unique, such as reading and writing from a manifest file (such as package.json/Cargo.toml etc) if applicable, reading from a remote registry etc.
  • No core business logic about releases is handled within a VersionActions implementation.
  • You can check out the implementation for JS projects here: packages/js/src/generators/release-version/version-actions.ts

Other benefits:

• More performant
• Much better IDE experience for version configuration because of the untyped generatorOptions going away, and most options moving to the top level of release.version config in nx.json.
• More informative logs during versioning, e.g.
  • BEFORE: Resolved the specifier as "minor" using version plans.
  • AFTER: Applied semver relative bump "minor", read from version plan .nx/version-plans/bump-mixed1.md, to get new version 0.2.0
• Lays the groundwork for application releases becoming a first-class use-case as part of our 2025 Roadmap.
• preserveLocalDependencyProtocols is now true by default and can be omitted from end user configs.

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Notes on rollout

• In Nx v20, it is opt-in via setting "useLegacyVersioning": false in release.version in nx.json.
• It will be enabled by default in Nx v21, with opt-out still possible via setting the flag explicitly to true.
• We will provide an automated migration to the new configuration as part of Nx v21
• The legacy versioning can now be considered "frozen". Some bugs should be fixed by moving to the new versioning, and any future fixes will be applied there.
• In Nx v22, the legacy versioning will be entirely removed.
• Documentation updates will take place in a follow up PR which documents both approaches, whilst making it clear that the legacy versioning is being replaced.

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You can see how straightforward it was to manually apply using the PR release from this branch on a real world project here: angular-eslint/angular-eslint#2329

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Fixes #21458
Fixes #21466
Fixes #26444
Fixes #27823
Fixes #28049
Fixes #28695
Fixes #30363

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☁️ Nx Cloud last updated this comment at 2025-03-28 17:51:42 UTC

[FrozenPandaz]

nit: not a fan of this method name. Is postVersioning callback a better name?

[JamesHenry]

It is now an exported function as discussed. I couldn't help feeling like afterAllProjectsVersioned is a clearer name because it's not after all of the version logic runs (it's before git for example), so postVersion felt a little ambiguous

[JamesHenry]

But I have indeed been able to flatten it now too and avoid the higher order function

[github-actions]

🐳 We have a release for that!

This PR has a release associated with it. You can try it out using this command:

npx create-nx-workspace@0.0.0-pr-30418-80f02f7 my-workspace

Or just copy this version and use it in your own command:

0.0.0-pr-30418-80f02f7

Release details	📑
Published version	0.0.0-pr-30418-80f02f7
Triggered by	@JamesHenry
Branch	nx-release-v-v2
Commit	80f02f7
Workflow run	14115494427

To request a new release for this pull request, mention someone from the Nx team or the @nrwl/nx-pipelines-reviewers.

[github-actions]

🐳 We have a release for that!

This PR has a release associated with it. You can try it out using this command:

npx create-nx-workspace@0.0.0-pr-30418-6fbe6c1 my-workspace

Or just copy this version and use it in your own command:

0.0.0-pr-30418-6fbe6c1

Release details	📑
Published version	0.0.0-pr-30418-6fbe6c1
Triggered by	@JamesHenry
Branch	nx-release-v-v2
Commit	6fbe6c1
Workflow run	14135844180

To request a new release for this pull request, mention someone from the Nx team or the @nrwl/nx-pipelines-reviewers.