feat(core): add dependents property for reverse dependency execution

[seriouscoderone]

Current Behavior

Currently, Nx only supports forward dependency execution where dependencies must be built/executed before their dependents. For example, if app depends on lib, the build target runs lib:build before app:build.

There's no built-in way to execute tasks in reverse dependency order (leaves-first), which is critical for infrastructure-as-code teardown workflows.

Expected Behavior

With this PR, users can now configure targets to run in reverse dependency order using the dependents: true property in TargetDependencyConfig.

Usage Example:

{
  "targetDefaults": {
    "destroy": {
      "dependsOn": [{"target": "destroy", "dependents": true}]
    }
  }
}

When destroying infrastructure, dependent resources (e.g., AWS CloudFormation stacks that import values) must be removed before their dependencies.

Related Issue(s)

Fixes #9322

Implementation Details

Changes Made:

1. Type Definition (workspace-json-project-json.ts):

   • Added dependents?: boolean property to TargetDependencyConfig interface
   • Updated documentation for mutual exclusivity with projects and dependencies

2. Configuration Utilities (utils.ts):

   • Added validation to ensure projects, dependencies, and dependents are mutually exclusive
   • Updated expandWildcardTargetConfiguration() to preserve dependents property

3. Task Graph Creation (create-task-graph.ts):

   • Implemented processTasksForDependents() using the existing reverse() function from project-graph/operators
   • Leverages the reversed project graph to reuse processTasksForDependencies() logic

4. Comprehensive Tests:

   • Simple reverse dependency scenarios
   • Multiple dependents
   • Multi-level reverse dependencies
   • Mix of dependencies and dependents
   • Edge case handling (missing targets)
   • Validation tests for mutual exclusivity

Key Design Decisions:

• Reuses existing utilities: Uses the reverse() function from devkit instead of implementing custom reverse traversal logic
• Clean implementation: ~23 lines of new core logic by leveraging existing infrastructure
• Consistent API: Follows the same pattern as dependencies: true

Use Cases:

• AWS CloudFormation/Pulumi stack destruction: Stacks with Fn::ImportValue dependencies must be destroyed in reverse order
• Database schema teardown: Drop dependent tables before dropping referenced tables
• Service shutdown: Stop dependent services before shutting down core services

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Co-Authored-By: Claude [email protected]

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Project	Deployment	Preview	Updated (UTC)
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[seriouscoderone]

@leosvelperez It's a relatively small PR. Let me know your thoughts.