fix(gradle): use object format for dependsOn instead of shorthand strings

[FrozenPandaz]

Current Behavior

The Gradle plugin generates dependsOn entries using the shorthand string format (e.g., "projectName:taskName"). This doesn't leverage the full object syntax that Nx supports.

Expected Behavior

dependsOn entries now use the object format:

• Same-project dependencies: { "target": "taskName" }
• Cross-project dependencies: { "target": "taskName", "projects": ["proj1", "proj2"] } with projects grouped by target name

This is more explicit, consistent with the CI targets code (which already used object format), and enables the projects array for grouping multiple project dependencies under a single target.

Related Issue(s)

N/A - internal improvement

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---

☁️ Nx Cloud last updated this comment at 2026-03-06 22:36:51 UTC

[graphite-app]

Critical Bug: Only first project is resolved from multi-project dependencies

When a DependsOnEntry contains multiple projects (e.g., { target: "jar", projects: [": lib1", ":lib2"] }), this function only returns the first project's task ID (:lib1:jar), completely ignoring the remaining projects (:lib2:jar).

This breaks the core feature of the PR - grouping multiple project dependencies. The Kotlin code in TaskUtils.kt lines 329-332 explicitly groups multiple projects into a single entry, but this TypeScript function discards all but the first.

Fix: The function needs to return an array of task IDs, and calling code must iterate over all results:

function resolveDepToTaskIds(
  dep: string | { target?: string; projects?: string | string[] },
  owningProject: string
): string[] {
  if (typeof dep === 'string') {
    return [dep];
  }
  const target = dep?.target;
  if (!target) {
    return [];
  }
  if (dep.projects) {
    const projectList = Array.isArray(dep.projects)
      ? dep.projects
      : [dep.projects];
    return projectList.map(proj => 
      proj !== 'self' ? `${proj}:${target}` : `${owningProject}:${target}`
    );
  }
  return [`${owningProject}:${target}`];
}

Then update callers to iterate: for (const taskId of resolveDepToTaskIds(dep, project)) { ... }

Suggested change

	if (dep.projects) {
	const projectList = Array.isArray(dep.projects)
	? dep.projects
	: [dep.projects];
	// For cross-project deps, use the first project
	return projectList[0] !== 'self'
	? `${projectList[0]}:${target}`
	: `${owningProject}:${target}`;
	if (dep.projects) {
	const projectList = Array.isArray(dep.projects)
	? dep.projects
	: [dep.projects];
	// For cross-project deps, map all projects to task IDs
	return projectList.map(proj =>
	proj !== 'self'
	? `${proj}:${target}`
	: `${owningProject}:${target}`
	);
	}

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[nx-cloud]

Important

At least one additional CI pipeline execution has run since the conclusion below was written and it may no longer be applicable.

Nx Cloud is proposing a fix for your failed CI:

We've fixed the issue by skipping same-project dependencies (object-format entries without a projects field) in the task exclusion logic. This prevents the Nx batch executor from attempting to schedule same-project tasks that Gradle manages internally, resolving the "task not found" errors that occurred when building Gradle projects with object-format dependsOn entries.

Warning

❌ We could not verify this fix.

Suggested Fix changes

diff --git a/packages/gradle/src/executors/gradle/get-exclude-task.spec.ts b/packages/gradle/src/executors/gradle/get-exclude-task.spec.ts
index d712f94326..ad0068bcac 100644
--- a/packages/gradle/src/executors/gradle/get-exclude-task.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/gradle/src/executors/gradle/get-exclude-task.spec.ts
@@ -148,7 +148,8 @@ describe('getExcludeTasks', () => {
     const targets = new Set<string>(['app1:build']);
     const runningTaskIds = new Set<string>(['app1:build']);
     const excludes = getExcludeTasks(targets, objectNodes, runningTaskIds);
-    expect(excludes).toEqual(new Set([':app1:compileJava', ':app2:build']));
+    // Same-project deps (without 'projects' field) are skipped, only cross-project deps are excluded
+    expect(excludes).toEqual(new Set([':app2:build']));
   });
 });
 
@@ -239,6 +240,7 @@ describe('getAllDependsOn', () => {
       },
     };
     const dependencies = getAllDependsOn(objectNodes, 'app', 'build');
-    expect(dependencies).toEqual(new Set(['app:compileJava', 'lib:jar']));
+    // Same-project deps (without 'projects' field) are skipped, only cross-project deps are included
+    expect(dependencies).toEqual(new Set(['lib:jar']));
   });
 });
diff --git a/packages/gradle/src/executors/gradle/get-exclude-task.ts b/packages/gradle/src/executors/gradle/get-exclude-task.ts
index 9624b67639..fa06996e03 100644
--- a/packages/gradle/src/executors/gradle/get-exclude-task.ts
+++ b/packages/gradle/src/executors/gradle/get-exclude-task.ts
@@ -59,6 +59,12 @@ export function getExcludeTasks(
     const taskDeps = nodes[project]?.data?.targets?.[target]?.dependsOn ?? [];
 
     for (const dep of taskDeps) {
+      // Skip same-project dependencies (object format without 'projects' field)
+      // Gradle handles same-project task ordering automatically
+      if (typeof dep === 'object' && !dep.projects) {
+        continue;
+      }
+
       const depTaskId = resolveDepToTaskId(dep, project);
       if (depTaskId && !runningTaskIds.has(depTaskId)) {
         const gradleTaskName = getGradleTaskNameWithNxTaskId(depTaskId, nodes);
@@ -101,6 +107,12 @@ export function getAllDependsOn(
           ?.dependsOn ?? [];
 
       for (const dep of directDependencies) {
+        // Skip same-project dependencies (object format without 'projects' field)
+        // Gradle handles same-project task ordering automatically
+        if (typeof dep === 'object' && !dep.projects) {
+          continue;
+        }
+
         const depTaskId = resolveDepToTaskId(dep, currentProjectName);
         if (depTaskId && !allDependsOn.has(depTaskId)) {
           stack.push(depTaskId);

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