What's Changed

@nestjs/cli is now a native ES module, and the major version is aligned with the Nest 12 release line. Alongside the ESM move, the CLI no longer bundles webpack: every bundler-related package is an optional peer dependency now, so a default install is substantially smaller and you pull in only the builder you actually use. There are also two new commands — nest upgrade and nest deploy.

ESM migration

The package is published as pure ESM ("type": "module", compiled with NodeNext). All internal imports carry explicit .js extensions and the build output is ESM-only.

For the common case this is invisible — nest is a binary, and it keeps running your CJS and ESM projects alike. It matters if you import the CLI's internals programmatically (custom builders, plugin harnesses, scripts that drive @nestjs/cli/lib/...): those imports now resolve to ESM.

webpack is no longer a dependency

webpack, fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin, tsconfig-paths-webpack-plugin, and webpack-node-externals moved from dependencies to optional peer dependencies, joining @swc/cli and @swc/core.

If you build with tsc (the default) or with SWC, nothing changes. If you use --builder webpack (or "webpack": true in nest-cli.json), install the bundler yourself:

:::bash
npm i -D webpack webpack-node-externals fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin tsconfig-paths-webpack-plugin

When a builder's peer dependency is missing, the CLI now reports the actual missing package name instead of surfacing the raw resolution error.

Rspack support

@rspack/core is supported as an optional peer dependency (^1.7.7 || ^2.1.10) and is the builder that nest new scaffolds into nest-cli.json for new projects.

• --builder rspack on nest build and nest start
• --rspackPath [path] to point at a custom Rspack config, mirroring --webpackPath
• Source maps are enabled in the Rspack defaults

New: nest upgrade

A new command (aliased nest update) that runs the upgrade schematic to migrate a Nest v11 project to v12 — dependency bumps, tsconfig and nest-cli.json migrations, and codemods for @nestjs/config, GraphQL, and NATS. See the @nestjs/schematics release notes for what the migration itself does.

:::bash
nest upgrade

Options: -d, --dry-run, -s, --skip-install, -t, --tag [tag] (use a dist-tag such as next instead of the default version ranges), -c, --collection [name], and --observe / --no-observe to answer the @nestjs/observe prompt up front.

New: nest deploy

Deploy an application to the cloud, powered by Mau. Every option is forwarded verbatim to mau deploy, so the command claims no flags of its own.

:::bash
nest deploy

Path confinement for build output

Build output and clean-up paths are now confined to the project directory by default. Symlinks are resolved before writing, so a dist that is itself a symlink pointing outside the project no longer lets a write escape.

Monorepo layouts that legitimately emit outside the project root can opt back out:

:::json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "allowOutsidePaths": true
  }
}

Monorepo and asset handling

• Parallel builds — nest build --all --parallel [concurrency] builds monorepo projects concurrently, with an optional concurrency limit.
• Library assets — compilerOptions.includeLibraryAssets pulls assets from libraries into an application build.
• Watch-mode restarts — asset changes restart the application in watch mode, debounced so a burst of writes triggers one restart. The build now awaits watcher close, so it no longer races shutdown.
• Asset path stripping is aligned with the effective TypeScript rootDir.

Compiler internals

• glob is gone. It is replaced by an internal fs-based helper built on minimatch, which is now a direct dependency. Symlink traversal depth matches the previous behaviour.
• A recursive fs watcher replaces chokidar in the SWC watch path.
• SWC respects tsconfig excludes — excluded files are skipped both on build and in watch mode, and newly added files no longer inherit watch mode when transpiled.
• --emit-declarations emits .d.ts files under the SWC builder; --no-type-check overrides the config-level setting.
• --silent suppresses informational compiler logs.

Other improvements

• Bun is supported as a package manager and runner, detected from bun.lock / bun.lockb.
• nest new --skip-tests scaffolds a project without testing files, and --observe / --no-observe answers the @nestjs/observe prompt.
• nest generate --format formats generated files with Prettier; the resource schematic accepts --type <rest|graphql|microservice> and --crud [value].
• Clearer failures: a non-zero exit on an invalid --builder, a readable error for malformed nest-cli.json, a --parallel value that is validated instead of looping forever, and an explicit message from nest info when no @nestjs/* dependencies are declared.
• nest info and terminal-width detection prefer process.stdout.columns over shelling out to tput.
• Plugin metadata emits .js extensions on dynamic imports under nodenext resolution.
• .tsbuildinfo is removed when deleteOutDir is set.

Toolchain

TypeScript 6 (~6.0.2), @angular-devkit/* 22, commander 15, @inquirer/prompts 8, ora 9, node-emoji 2, and chokidar 5. Internally the CLI moved from Jest to Vitest and from ESLint to oxlint. engines.node stays at >= 20.11.

---

See the migration guide for the full picture.