nx-release updateDependents at the version plan level

[njsokol]

Configurable Dependent Version Bump Behavior in Version Plans

Summary

When using Version Plans together with nx release to manage a component library containing many independently versioned packages, the current dependent version bump behavior can be too coarse-grained.

Today, dependent package updates are primarily controlled through global release configuration. This makes it difficult to express release intent on a per-change basis.

Problem

There are many cases where a package receives a bug fix or internal implementation change that does not require downstream packages to receive version bumps.

For example:

• Package A receives a patch fix.
• Packages B, C, and D depend on A.
• No public API has changed.
• Consumers of B, C, and D do not need any new functionality.

In this scenario, automatically versioning all downstream packages creates unnecessary version churn.

Conversely, there are cases where a change is intentionally impactful and dependent packages should be updated automatically.

Today, the available configuration is largely global, which makes it difficult to express these differing intents within individual Version Plans.

Current Workaround

It appears possible to achieve this behavior by:

• Adding custom frontmatter or metadata to Version Plans.
• Using ReleaseClient or other programmatic APIs.
• Modifying the release graph calculations after version generation.

However, this feels like a common enough scenario that it could potentially be supported natively by Nx.

Proposed Solution

Allow individual Version Plans to specify how dependent packages should be handled.

Example:

---

'@my-org/component-a': patch
dependentChangeType: none
---

Fix rendering issue when component is used with nested providers.

Potential values could include:

• none
• patch
• minor
• major

Use Case

We maintain a large component library with many independently versioned packages.

Most fixes are internal or non-breaking and do not warrant bumping every downstream dependency. However, for API changes or intentionally impactful updates, we still want Nx to automatically update dependents.

Being able to configure this behavior directly within a Version Plan would provide a much more precise and scalable release workflow.

[eblocha]

What about allowing an object in place of the version bump type for more complex config?

---
'@my-org/component-a':
  bumpType: patch
  dependentChangeType: none
---