nx release publish ignores dependsOn configuration for custom executors

[bilelomrani1]

Current Behavior

When using nx release publish with a custom executor (non-JavaScript ecosystem), the dependsOn configuration on the nx-release-publish target is completely ignored.

Example Configuration

project.json:

{
  "name": "my-python-package",
  "targets": {
    "build": {
      "executor": "@my-org/python:build",
      "outputs": ["{projectRoot}/dist"]
    },
    "nx-release-publish": {
      "dependsOn": ["build"],
      "executor": "@my-org/python:publish",
      "options": {
        "distPath": "{projectRoot}/dist"
      }
    }
  }
}

Observed Behavior

The "build" target is not executed when calling nx release publish.

Expected Behavior

The nx release publish command should respect dependsOn configuration and execute dependent tasks (like build) before running nx-release-publish, similar to how nx run and nx run-many work.

Motivation

Python (and other non-JS ecosystems) require building AFTER versioning

Unlike JavaScript/npm where package.json is copied separately from build artifacts, Python embeds the version number into the build artifacts themselves:

1. Version bump (updates pyproject.toml, setup.py, etc.)
2. Build (creates wheel/sdist with embedded version) this must happen after version bump
3. Publish (uploads the built artifacts)

The correct flow is:

nx release version  # Bumps version in source
nx run-many -t build  # Builds with correct version
nx release publish  # Publishes built artifacts

Setting dependsOn: ["build"] on the nx-release-publish target would be the idiomatic Nx way to express this workflow, but it doesn't work because nx release publish seems to bypass the task orchestration system.

preVersionCommand is not the correct solution here, as it executes before the version bump.

Questions

1. Is this intentional behavior? Was nx release publish designed to bypass dependsOn for specific reasons?

2. What is the recommended approach for non-JS ecosystems? Should we:

   • Use a wrapper script with explicit build steps?
   • Avoid nx release publish entirely and use custom targets with nx run-many -t publish?

3. Would a fix be accepted? If this is a bug rather than by design, would a PR to make nx release publish respect dependsOn be welcome?