vstask

vstask is a tiny, cross-platform runner for VS Code tasks.json written in Go. It discovers your project’s .vscode/tasks.json, resolves VS Code variables, respects platform overrides, and executes tasks—including dependencies in sequence or in parallel—with proper signal handling and process-tree cleanup.

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🚀 Features

• Zero-config: auto-discovers .vscode/tasks.json from your project tree.

• VS Code semantics:

  • Platform overrides (windows/osx/linux)
  • type: shell / type: process
  • dependsOn with sequence or parallel execution
  • Built-in variable substitutions (e.g., ${workspaceFolder}, ${userHome}, ${cwd}, etc.).

• Robust execution:

  • Correct shell invocation (/bin/sh -c or cmd.exe /C by default)
  • Well-formed quoting for args while leaving command strings verbatim (so $(...), pipes, etc. work)
  • Signal trapping (CTRL-C) and process-group kill on Unix; taskkill /T /F on Windows
  • Proper working-directory resolution with relative paths

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🎯 Installation

Download Precompiled Binaries

Grab the latest release for Linux, macOS, or Windows:

• Releases →

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

Install directly from the tap:

brew install chenasraf/tap/vstask

Or tap and then install the package:

brew tap chenasraf/tap
brew install vstask

Linux

You can install vstask by downloading the release tar, and extracting it to your preferred location.

• You can see an example script for install here: install.sh

• The example script can be used for actual install, use this command to download and execute the file (use at your own discretion):

  To change the install location, change the provided env variable $INSTALL_DIR to the script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chenasraf/vstask/master/install.sh \
  | env INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/.local/bin" bash -s --

From Source

git clone https://github.com/chenasraf/vstask
cd vstask
go build ./...

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✨ Getting Started

Place a tasks.json under .vscode/ in your repo. Example:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "my-command",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "echo \"it works!\"",
      "dependsOn": ["dep-a", "dep-b"],
      "dependsOrder": "parallel",
      "problemMatcher": []
    },
    {
      "label": "dep-a",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "echo \"running dep-a\"",
      "problemMatcher": []
    },
    {
      "label": "dep-b",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "echo \"running dep-b\"",
      "problemMatcher": []
    }
  ]
}

Run a task (CLI)

# list tasks and select from the list
vstask

# run one by label
vstask my-command

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🛠️ Contributing

I am developing this package on my free time, so any support, whether code, issues, or just stars is very helpful to sustaining its life. If you are feeling incredibly generous and would like to donate just a small amount to help sustain this project, I would be very very thankful!

I welcome any issues or pull requests on GitHub. If you find a bug, or would like a new feature, don’t hesitate to open an appropriate issue and I will do my best to reply promptly.

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📜 License

vstask is licensed under the CC0-1.0 License.

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Happy tasking! 🧰✨