vstask

A command-line tool to run VS Code tasks from the terminal.

Overview

vstask allows you to execute VS Code tasks defined in .vscode/tasks.json directly from the command line, without needing to open VS Code. It supports all the features of VS Code tasks including:

• Shell and process tasks
• Platform-specific configurations (Windows, Linux, macOS)
• Working directory changes (cwd)
• Environment variables
• Background tasks
• Variable substitution (e.g., ${workspaceFolder}, ${env:VAR})

Installation

Using Cargo

If you have Rust installed, you can install vstask directly from crates.io:

cargo install vstask

This will install the binary to ~/.cargo/bin/ which should be in your PATH.

From Source

cargo build --release

The binary will be available at target/release/vstask.

You can then copy it to a location in your PATH:

cp target/release/vstask ~/.local/bin/
# or
sudo cp target/release/vstask /usr/local/bin/

Usage

Run a Task

vstask "Task Name"

List All Available Tasks

vstask --list
# or
vstask -l

Run Without Arguments

Running vstask without any arguments will display a list of available tasks:

vstask

Shell Completion

Zsh

Add the following to your ~/.zshrc for dynamic task name completion:

# --- vstask Dynamic Completion ---
compinit
_vstask_tasks_completion() {
    # Read JSON task list into array
    local -a tasks
    tasks=("${(@f)$(vstask --json 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.[]')}")

    # Add task names to Zsh's completion list.
    _describe 'vstask tasks' tasks
}
compdef _vstask_tasks_completion vstask

After adding this, reload your shell configuration:

source ~/.zshrc

Now you can use tab completion when typing task names:

vstask <TAB> 

HINT: Use " if the tasks contain spaces for the auto complete to display without the escape character.

Requirements

• A .vscode/tasks.json file in your project directory
• Rust 1.70+ (for building from source)

License

• MIT License
• Apache License, Version 2.0