Support configuration references/extends in project.json targets

[driessamyn]

Current Limitation

Currently, when multiple projects share identical target configurations (but not all projects), there's no way to define that configuration once and reference it from multiple project.json files.

targetDefaults in nx.json works for global defaults, but applies to all projects. For shared configurations that only apply to a subset of projects, the only option is duplication.

Use Case

I have multiple Vite applications in a monorepo that share identical build configurations with multiple environments. These are ~50+ lines of configuration that need to be kept in sync across projects.

{
  "targets": {
    "build": {
      "executor": "@nx/vite:build",
      "defaultConfiguration": "development",
      "configurations": {
        "development": { /* ... */ },
        "production": { /* ... */ },
        "staging": { /* ... */ },
        "staging-beta": { /* ... */ },
        "analyze": { /* ... */ }
      }
    }
  }
}

Not all projects use this configuration, so making it a global targetDefault isn't appropriate.

Proposed Solution

Option 1 - Add extends support:

configs/vite-multi-env.json:

{
  "defaultConfiguration": "development",
  "configurations": { /* ... */ }
}

project.json:

{
  "targets": {
    "build": {
      "executor": "@nx/vite:build",
      "extends": "../../configs/vite-multi-env.json"
    }
  }
}

Option 2 - Named target configurations in nx.json:

nx.json:

{
  "namedTargetConfigs": {
    "vite-multi-env": {
      "defaultConfiguration": "development",
      "configurations": { /* ... */ }
    }
  }
}

project.json:

{
  "targets": {
    "build": {
      "executor": "@nx/vite:build",
      "extends": "vite-multi-env"
    }
  }
}

Benefits

DRY: Define configuration once
Maintainability: Update shared config in one place
Flexibility: Projects can override specific values
Selective: Only applies to projects that opt-in

Alternatives Considered

• targetDefaults with executor matching - doesn't work when executors delegate internally
• Tags + scripting - requires custom tooling
• Accepting duplication - not maintainable at scale

[aktaler]

I have come here to say that this is a pain point i currently have to work around. Im supporting the proposed solutions.