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Continuous Integration (CI) with Nx Cloud

Nx Cloud makes CI faster and cheaper in two ways:

  • Remote caching skips any task that already ran with the same inputs, in CI or on a developer machine.
  • Distributed task execution spreads the remaining tasks across Nx Agents, and dynamic task packing fills each agent by the CPU and memory its tasks use, so fewer machine-minutes sit idle.

In most workspaces, distribution uses about 50% fewer machine-minutes than remote caching alone. Teams using Nx Cloud report 30% to 70% faster CI.

What you get with Nx Cloud on top of Nx Core

Section titled “What you get with Nx Cloud on top of Nx Core”
Nx CoreNx Cloud
CachingLocal cache, per machineAdds a remote cache shared across your team and CI
Task schedulingTask graph on one machine, nx affected to skip untouched projectsAdds distribution across agents with dynamic task packing
Failing CIYou read the logs and fix itSelf-healing CI proposes a fix on the PR
VisibilityTerminal output for the run in front of youRun history, task analytics, and CI observability

Push your workspace to a remote repository, then run:

Terminal window
npx nx@latest connect

Remote caching works as soon as the workspace is connected. To add distribution and the rest of the pipeline, see setting up CI.

Most CI setups use static partitioning (binning and sharding), assigning work to machines up front, such as one job for tests and another for builds, and each machine runs until its slowest task ends. Nx Cloud assigns individual tasks as agents free up, using the task graph and each task's past duration, CPU, and memory use. Agents stay busy, an agent that fails during setup has its work picked up by the others, and adding agents needs no change to how work is split.

Learn how teams use Nx Cloud to scale their workspaces.

Yes. Nx Cloud starts on the free Hobby plan, which includes 50,000 credits per month, 5 contributors, and 10 concurrent CI connections, with no credit card.

Nx itself is free and open source too. Task running, the project graph, local caching, nx affected, generators, and migrations all work without an Nx Cloud account.

On the Hobby plan, Nx Cloud features turn off once the monthly credits are gone and turn back on at the next reset.

The Team plan has no such cap, and usage beyond the $29 of included credit is billed at $5.50 per 10,000 credits. See credit pricing for what each operation costs.

Is Nx Cloud cheaper than running CI on GitHub Actions alone?

Section titled “Is Nx Cloud cheaper than running CI on GitHub Actions alone?”

With 70% of task time served from cache, pipeline times roughly halve and GitHub spend drops 15% to 40%, depending on how many machine-minutes the pipeline uses today. See GitHub Actions pricing and how to cut your CI bill for the rate tables and the break-even math.

No. Your allowance resets at the start of each billing cycle.

Yes. Nx Cloud is free for qualifying open source organizations. Talk to our engineering team to get set up.

Can I get a shared cache without Nx Cloud?

Section titled “Can I get a shared cache without Nx Cloud?”

Yes. Build your own server against the remote cache OpenAPI specification, in any language. You maintain the storage, authentication, and uptime.

When should I consider Enterprise or self-hosted options?

Section titled “When should I consider Enterprise or self-hosted options?”

The Enterprise plan adds SSO and SAML, dedicated support with SLAs, conformance rules, code owners, and cross-repo visibility.

On a single-tenant instance or an on-prem install, you choose the region and the infrastructure your cache and run data live on. For what a standard Nx Cloud workspace sends and stores, see the privacy policy.