May 2022 Summaries

Nrwl has released a new beta version of Lerna, which now boasts a significant speed increase by integrating Nx's task scheduling capabilities through a new "useNx" flag. This enhancement allows Lerna to perform up to 5.3 times faster than Turborepo, leveraging Nx's advanced caching and task orchestration features. Users can easily implement this by upgrading to Lerna v5.1, installing Nx as a dependency, and enabling the "useNx" feature in their lerna.json configuration. The integration not only accelerates build processes but also introduces Nx's project graph, distributed caching, and task execution capabilities. This development marks an effort by Nrwl to improve Lerna’s efficiency without requiring substantial changes to existing workflows, while also providing users with the option to explore Nx Cloud for further performance gains. The company has also published a roadmap for Lerna's future developments and is actively seeking feedback from the community as they prepare for a stable release.

Nrwl, the company behind the open-source tool Nx, has taken over stewardship of Lerna.js, a popular JavaScript monorepo tool that had been largely unmaintained. Founded by ex-Googlers Jeff Cross and Victor Savkin, Nrwl has extensive experience in managing large-scale monorepos and open-source projects. The company aims to revitalize Lerna by providing critical updates and integrating it with Nx, which offers features that Lerna currently lacks. Nrwl plans to work closely with the Lerna community to establish a roadmap and ensure the tool's sustainability, while addressing the needs of organizations that still rely on Lerna. As part of this effort, they intend to provide bug fixes, security updates, and facilitate easy migration between Lerna and Nx, thereby advancing the monorepo space.

Nx version 14 has been released, marking a significant update from its predecessor, with improvements in speed, simplicity, and feature enhancements. Over the past six months, Nx has achieved a notable increase in weekly downloads, surpassing other tools like Lerna, and now includes streamlined processes for adding plugins and managing monorepos. Key updates include the introduction of the Nx Daemon for faster operations, distributed task execution for optimized CI times, and support for module federation to enhance build efficiency. The release also adds features for React and Angular, such as React 18 and Storybook support, and introduces dark mode for project graph visualization. The new version simplifies the architecture by using a single Nx package and includes the Nx Cloud GitHub app for improved CI workflow visibility. With these innovations, Nx aims to provide a more efficient and user-friendly experience for developers working with JavaScript-based monorepos.