Deleting config lib files make affected command take every projects as affected

[antoineducrot]

Current Behavior

When deleting the .eslintrc.json file for example inside a library in an Nx workspace, the nx affected command unexpectedly considers all projects as affected. This behavior is unexpected because the .eslintrc.json file is specific to a single library and should not impact the entire workspace.

Expected Behavior

Nx should only mark the library (and potentially its dependents) as affected rather than the entire workspace.

GitHub Repo

[email protected]:nrwl/nx-examples.git

Steps to Reproduce

1. Delete the .eslintrc.json file from a specific library.

2. Run: nx affected test

3. Observe that Nx considers all projects as affected.

Nx Report

NX   Report complete - copy this into the issue template

Node           : 22.11.0
OS             : darwin-arm64
Native Target  : aarch64-macos
yarn           : 4.2.2

nx                     : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/js                 : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/jest               : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/eslint             : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/workspace          : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/angular            : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/cypress            : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/devkit             : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/eslint-plugin      : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/module-federation  : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/react              : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/web                : 20.3.0-rc.0
@nx/webpack            : 20.3.0-rc.0
typescript             : 5.6.3
---------------------------------------
Registered Plugins:
@nx/eslint/plugin
@nx/cypress/plugin
@nx/jest/plugin
---------------------------------------
Community plugins:
@ngrx/component-store : 19.0.0
@ngrx/effects         : 19.0.0
@ngrx/entity          : 19.0.0
@ngrx/operators       : 19.0.0
@ngrx/router-store    : 19.0.0
@ngrx/store           : 19.0.0
@ngrx/store-devtools  : 19.0.0

Failure Logs

Package Manager Version

No response

Operating System

• macOS
• Linux
• Windows
• Other (Please specify)

Additional Information

No response

[AgentEnder]

This is expected on our end, although I can understand why it may be unexpected for users. When using plugins that identify project configurations, any file that the plugin matches could theoretically create a project. Additionally, if a project was removed we always mark everything as affected.

The combination of these 2 statements means that if a file identified as potentially containing projects info is removed, the graph lights up