The Nx Plugin for esbuild, an extremely fast JavaScript bundler.

Why should you use this plugin?

  • Fast builds using esbuild.
  • Type-checking using TypeScript, which esbuild does not handle.
  • Intelligent package.json output.
  • Additional assets for the output.

Setting up esbuild

To create a new workspace, run npx create-nx-workspace@latest --preset=npm.

To add the esbuild plugin to an existing workspace, run the following:

Creating a new JS library

You can add a new library that builds using esbuild with:

nx g @nx/js:lib mylib --bundler=esbuild
Nx 15 and lower use @nrwl/ instead of @nx/

This command will install the esbuild plugin if needed, and set @nx/esbuild:esbuild executor for the build target.

Adding esbuild target to existing libraries

If you already have a JS project that you want to use esbuild for, run this command:

nx g @nx/esbuild:configuration mylib
Nx 15 and lower use @nrwl/ instead of @nx/

This generator validates there isn't an existing build target. If you want to overwrite the existing target you can pass the --skipValidation option.

nx g @nx/esbuild:configuration mylib --skipValidation
Nx 15 and lower use @nrwl/ instead of @nx/

Using esbuild

You can run builds with:

nx build mylib

Replace mylib with the name or your project. This command works for both applications and libraries.

Copying assets

Assets are non-JS and non-TS files, such as images, CSS, etc. You can add them to the project configuration as follows.

"build": { "executor": "@nx/esbuild:esbuild", "options": { //... "assets": [ { "input": "libs/mylib", "glob": "README.md", "output": "/" }, { "input": "libs/mylib", "glob": "logo.png", "output": "/" }, { "input": "libs/mylib", "glob": "docs/**/*.md", "output": "/docs" }, //... ] } }
Nx 15 and lower use @nrwl/ instead of @nx/

Running nx build mylib outputs something like this.

dist/libs/mylib/ ├── README.md ├── docs │ ├── CONTRIBUTING.md │ └── TESTING.md ├── index.js ├── logo.png └── package.json

Generating a metafile

A metafile can be generated by passing the --metafile option. This file contains information about the build that can be analyzed by other tools, such as bundle buddy.

nx build mylib --metafile

This command will generate a meta.json file in the output directory.

dist/libs/mylib/ ├── README.md ├── index.js ├── meta.json └── package.json

Custom esbuild options

Extra API options for esbuild can be passed in the esbuildOptions object for your project configuration.

"build": { "executor": "@nx/esbuild:esbuild", "options": { //... "esbuildOptions": { "banner": { ".js": "// banner" }, "footer": { ".js": "// footer" } } } }
Nx 15 and lower use @nrwl/ instead of @nx/

More Documentation