Standalone migration

ng generate schematic that helps users to convert an application to standalone components, directives and pipes. The migration can be run with ng generate @angular/core:standalone and it has the following options:

mode - Configures the mode that migration should run in. The different modes are clarified further down in this document.
path - Relative path within the project that the migration should apply to. Can be used to migrate specific sub-directories individually. Defaults to the project root.

Migration flow

The standalone migration involves multiple distinct operations, and as such has to be run multiple times. Authors should verify that the app still works between each of the steps. If the application is large, it can be easier to use the path option to migrate specific sub-sections of the app individually.

Note: The schematic often needs to generate new code or copy existing code to different places. This means that likely the formatting won't match your app anymore and there may be some lint failures. The application should compile, but it's expected that the author will fix up any formatting and linting failures.

An example migration could look as follows:

ng generate @angular/core:standalone.
Select the "Convert all components, directives and pipes to standalone" option.
Verify that the app works and commit the changes.
ng generate @angular/core:standalone.
Select the "Remove unnecessary NgModule classes" option.
Verify that the app works and commit the changes.
ng generate @angular/core:standalone.
Select the "Bootstrap the application using standalone APIs" option.
Verify that the app works and commit the changes.
Run your linting and formatting checks, and fix any failures. Commit the result.

Migration modes

The migration is made up the following modes that are intended to be run in the order they are listed in:

Convert declarations to standalone.
Remove unnecessary NgModules.
Switch to standalone bootstrapping API.

Convert declarations to standalone

In this mode, the migration will find all of the components, directives and pipes, and convert them to standalone by removing standalone: false and adding any dependencies to the imports array.

Note: NgModules which bootstrap a component are explicitly ignored in this step, because they are likely to be root modules and they would have to be bootstrapped using bootstrapApplication instead of bootstrapModule. Their declarations will be converted automatically as a part of the "Switch to standalone bootstrapping API" step.

Before:

typescript

// app.module.ts
@NgModule({
  imports: [CommonModule],
  declarations: [MyComp, MyDir, MyPipe],
})
export class AppModule {}

typescript

// my-comp.ts
@Component({
  selector: 'my-comp',
  template: '<div my-dir *ngIf="showGreeting">{{ "Hello" | myPipe }}</div>',
  standalone: false,
})
export class MyComp {
  public showGreeting = true;
}

typescript

// my-dir.ts
@Directive({selector: '[my-dir]', standalone: false})
export class MyDir {}

typescript

// my-pipe.ts
@Pipe({name: 'myPipe', pure: true, standalone: false})
export class MyPipe {}

After:

typescript

// app.module.ts
@NgModule({
  imports: [CommonModule, MyComp, MyDir, MyPipe],
})
export class AppModule {}

typescript

// my-comp.ts
@Component({
  selector: 'my-comp',
  template: '<div my-dir *ngIf="showGreeting">{{ "Hello" | myPipe }}</div>',
  imports: [NgIf, MyDir, MyPipe],
})
export class MyComp {
  public showGreeting = true;
}

typescript

// my-dir.ts
@Directive({selector: '[my-dir]'})
export class MyDir {}

typescript

// my-pipe.ts
@Pipe({name: 'myPipe', pure: true})
export class MyPipe {}

Remove unnecessary NgModules

After converting all declarations to standalone, a lot of NgModules won't be necessary anymore! This step identifies such modules and deletes them, including as many references to them, as possible. If a module reference can't be deleted automatically, the migration will leave a TODO comment saying TODO(standalone-migration): clean up removed NgModule reference manually so that the author can delete it themselves.

A module is considered "safe to remove" if it:

Has no declarations.
Has no providers.
Has no bootstrap components.
Has no imports that reference a ModuleWithProviders symbol or a module that can't be removed.
Has no class members. Empty constructors are ignored.

Before:

typescript

// importer.module.ts

@NgModule({
  imports: [FooComp, BarPipe],
  exports: [FooComp, BarPipe],
})
export class ImporterModule {}

typescript

// configurer.module.ts
import {ImporterModule} from './importer.module';

console.log(ImporterModule);

@NgModule({
  imports: [ImporterModule],
  exports: [ImporterModule],
  providers: [{provide: FOO, useValue: 123}],
})
export class ConfigurerModule {}

typescript

// index.ts
export {ImporterModule, ConfigurerModule} from './modules/index';

After:

typescript

// importer.module.ts
// Deleted!

typescript

// configurer.module.ts
console.log(
  /* TODO(standalone-migration): clean up removed NgModule reference manually */ ImporterModule,
);

@NgModule({
  imports: [],
  exports: [],
  providers: [{provide: FOO, useValue: 123}],
})
export class ConfigurerModule {}

typescript

// index.ts
export {ConfigurerModule} from './modules/index';

Switch to standalone bootstrapping API

Converts any usages of the old bootstrapModule API to the new bootstrapApplication. To do this in a safe way, the migration has to make the following changes to the application's code:

Generate the bootstrapApplication call to replace the bootstrapModule one.
Convert the declarations of the module that is being bootstrapped to standalone. These modules were skipped explicitly in the first step of the migration.
Copy any providers from the bootstrapped module into the providers option of bootstrapApplication.
Copy any classes from the imports array of the rootModule to the providers option of bootstrapApplication and wrap them in an importsProvidersFrom function call.
Adjust any dynamic import paths so that they're correct when they're copied over.
If an API with a standalone equivalent is detected, it may be converted automatically as well. E.g. RouterModule.forRoot will become provideRouter.
Remove the root module.

If the migration detects that the providers or imports of the root module are referencing code outside of the class declaration, it will attempt to carry over as much of it as it can to the new location. If some of that code is exported, it will be imported in the new location, otherwise it will be copied over.

Before:

typescript

// ./app/app.module.ts
import {NgModule, InjectionToken} from '@angular/core';
import {RouterModule} from '@angular/router';
import {BrowserAnimationsModule} from '@angular/platform-browser/animations';
import {AppComponent} from './app.component.ts';
import {SharedModule} from './shared.module';
import {ImportedInterface} from './some-interface';
import {CONFIG} from './config';

interface NonImportedInterface {
  foo: any;
  baz: ImportedInterface;
}

const token = new InjectionToken<NonImportedInterface>('token');

export class ExportedConfigClass {}

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    SharedModule,
    BrowserAnimationsModule,
    RouterModule.forRoot(
      [
        {
          path: 'shop',
          loadComponent: () => import('./shop/shop.component').then((m) => m.ShopComponent),
        },
      ],
      {
        initialNavigation: 'enabledBlocking',
      },
    ),
  ],
  declarations: [AppComponent],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent],
  providers: [
    {provide: token, useValue: {foo: true, bar: {baz: false}}},
    {provide: CONFIG, useClass: ExportedConfigClass},
  ],
})
export class AppModule {}

typescript

// ./app/app.component.ts
@Component({selector: 'app', template: 'hello', standalone: false})
export class AppComponent {}

typescript

// ./main.ts
import {platformBrowser} from '@angular/platform-browser';
import {AppModule} from './app/app.module';

platformBrowser()
  .bootstrapModule(AppModule)
  .catch((e) => console.error(e));

After:

typescript

// ./app/app.module.ts
import {NgModule, InjectionToken} from '@angular/core';
import {RouterModule} from '@angular/router';
import {BrowserAnimationsModule} from '@angular/platform-browser/animations';
import {AppComponent} from './app.component.ts';
import {SharedModule} from '../shared/shared.module';
import {ImportedInterface} from './some-interface';
import {CONFIG} from './config';

interface NonImportedInterface {
  foo: any;
  bar: ImportedInterface;
}

const token = new InjectionToken<NonImportedInterface>('token');

export class ExportedConfigClass {}

typescript

// ./app/app.component.ts
@Component({selector: 'app', template: 'hello'})
export class AppComponent {}

typescript

// ./main.ts
import {platformBrowser, bootstrapApplication} from '@angular/platform-browser';
import {InjectionToken, importProvidersFrom} from '@angular/core';
import {withEnabledBlockingInitialNavigation, provideRouter} from '@angular/router';
import {provideAnimations} from '@angular/platform-browser/animations';
import {AppModule, ExportedConfigClass} from './app/app.module';
import {AppComponent} from './app/app.component';
import {CONFIG} from './app/config';
import {SharedModule} from './shared/shared.module';
import {ImportedInterface} from './app/some-interface';

interface NonImportedInterface {
  foo: any;
  bar: ImportedInterface;
}

const token = new InjectionToken<NonImportedInterface>('token');

bootstrapApplication(AppComponent, {
  providers: [
    importProvidersFrom(SharedModule),
    {provide: token, useValue: {foo: true, bar: {baz: false}}},
    {provide: CONFIG, useClass: ExportedConfigClass},
    provideAnimations(),
    provideRouter(
      [
        {
          path: 'shop',
          loadComponent: () => import('./app/shop/shop.component').then((m) => m.ShopComponent),
        },
      ],
      withEnabledBlockingInitialNavigation(),
    ),
  ],
}).catch((e) => console.error(e));