Rhask – Rhai-based Task Runner

Rhask is a lightweight task runner that lets you describe tasks in Rhai and execute them from a Rust CLI. Tasks and groups can be nested arbitrarily, and every item can be invoked via a fully qualified name such as group.task.

Features

Task definition lives in rhaskfile.rhai at your project root.
If --file/-f is not provided, Rhask searches the current directory and then walks up parent directories until it finds rhaskfile.rhai.
rhask list renders tasks and groups as a tree; warnings and errors are emitted to stderr, listings to stdout.
rhask run accepts both leaf names and fully qualified names. When a name is ambiguous, Rhask prints the candidate list and asks you to re-run with a full path.
description(), actions(), and args() are available inside task()/group() blocks so you can declare metadata, implement logic, and describe parameters.
CLI arguments can be mixed (positional, key=value, --key=value, --key value) and defaults/required values can be declared via args(#{ ... }).
Logging uses env_logger; normal runs are quiet, while RUST_LOG=debug rhask run … exposes internal tracing.

Installation / Build

The crate is not published on crates.io yet. Build and run from sources:

# Build dependencies
cargo build

# List registered tasks
cargo run -- list

# Execute a task
cargo run -- run build

CLI Usage

Command	Description
`rhask list [group]`	Show all tasks/groups as a tree. Provide `group` to display only that subtree.
`rhask run <task> [args…]`	Execute a task. Supports short names and fully qualified names; ambiguous names print candidate paths.
`rhask -f <file> …`	Explicitly load the given Rhai script (the flag can appear anywhere).

Passing Arguments

Declare parameters in Rhai, e.g. args(#{ profile: "debug", target: () }), and invoke them from the CLI using any of the following styles:

Positional: rhask run build release
key=value: rhask run build profile=release
--key=value: rhask run build --target=x86_64-apple-darwin
--key value: rhask run build --target wasm32-unknown-unknown
You can mix styles within the same command.

Unknown keys produce an error. Parameters marked as required (()) must be provided; otherwise the run fails with a descriptive message.

Task Definition Example

task("build", || {
    description("Build the project");
    args(#{
        profile: "debug",
        target: "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu"
    });
    actions(|profile, target| {
        print("build => profile:" + profile + ", target:" + target);
    });
});

group("release_flow", || {
    description("Release tasks");
    task("package", || {
        actions(|| { exec("cargo package"); });
    });
});

Rhai Helpers

Helper	Description
`task(name, \|\| { ... })`	Declare a task. Use `description`/`actions`/`args` inside.
`group(name, \|\| { ... })`	Declare a group. You can nest tasks or sub-groups inside.
`description(text)`	Attach a description to the current task or group.
`actions(\|\| { ... })`	Register the execution closure. Only here can you call `trigger`/`exec`.
`args(#{ key: default, required: () })`	Declare CLI parameters and defaults/required flags.
`trigger(name, positional?, named?)`	Reuse another task. Provide arrays/maps for positional/named args.
`exec(command)`	Run an external command through the shell. Returns `()` on success.

Note: trigger and exec are only allowed inside actions(). Misuse raises an error when the script is loaded.

Logs & Output

User-facing messages are routed through the printer module: informational lines go to stdout, warnings/errors to stderr.
Logging relies on env_logger. Set RUST_LOG=debug (or trace, etc.) to inspect the execution flow.
Colorful output is automatically enabled when stdout is a TTY; it is suppressed for non-TTY contexts (pipes, CI logs, etc.).

License

Dual-licensed under MIT OR Apache-2.0.
See LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-APACHE for details.

rhask 0.1.0