Grouping Settings

Table of Contents

  1. workspaceTasks.groups.enabled
  2. workspaceTasks.groups.useParentFolder
  3. workspaceTasks.groups.taskSeparator
  4. workspaceTasks.groups.taskSeparatorIsRegex
  5. workspaceTasks.groups.recentTasks.enabled
  6. workspaceTasks.groups.compoundTasks.enabled
  7. workspaceTasks.groups.justfile.enabled
  8. workspaceTasks.groups.expanded
  9. Related

workspaceTasks.groups.enabled

   
Type: boolean
Default: true

When enabled, tasks in the tree view are grouped by task type (e.g. npm, shell, vscode). When disabled, all tasks from all providers appear in a flat list.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.groups.enabled": true
}

Screenshot - Groups Enabled

workspaceTasks.groups.useParentFolder

   
Type: boolean
Default: false

When enabled, tasks are additionally sub-grouped by the folder that contains their source file, giving a workspace-folder > task-type > folder > task hierarchy. When disabled, tasks are grouped at workspace-folder > task-type > task level.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.groups.useParentFolder": true
}

Screenshot - Use Parent Folder

workspaceTasks.groups.taskSeparator

   
Type: string
Default: ""

A string that is inserted between the task-type group label and the task name when rendering tree items. Leave empty for no separator.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.groups.taskSeparator": " › "
}

Screenshot - Task Separator

workspaceTasks.groups.taskSeparatorIsRegex

   
Type: boolean
Default: false

When true, the value of workspaceTasks.groups.taskSeparator is compiled as a JavaScript regular-expression pattern and used to split task names into nested groups. Only the first match at each grouping level is consumed; the algorithm is recursive so multi-level labels are split one level at a time.

If the pattern is syntactically invalid the extension shows a one-time warning notification and falls back to treating the value as a plain string literal.

Example — split on : or -:

{
  "workspaceTasks.groups.taskSeparator": "[:\\-]",
  "workspaceTasks.groups.taskSeparatorIsRegex": true
}

With this configuration a task named build:frontend and a task named build-backend will both appear under the same build group.

Example — split on double-colon (::) namespace delimiter:

{
  "workspaceTasks.groups.taskSeparator": "::",
  "workspaceTasks.groups.taskSeparatorIsRegex": true
}

workspaceTasks.groups.recentTasks.enabled

   
Type: boolean
Default: false

When enabled, a Recent Tasks group is shown at the top of the task tree, surfacing the most recently executed tasks for quick access.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.groups.recentTasks.enabled": true
}

Screenshot - Recent Groups

workspaceTasks.groups.compoundTasks.enabled

   
Type: boolean
Default: false

When enabled, a Compound Tasks group is shown at the top of the task tree, listing all defined compound task sequences for quick access. Has no effect if compound tasks are not configured.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.groups.compoundTasks.enabled": true
}

workspaceTasks.groups.justfile.enabled

   
Type: boolean
Default: false

When enabled, justfile recipes that carry a [group('name')] attribute are shown as collapsible group nodes in the task tree rather than as a flat list. Recipes without a group attribute are always shown at the top level, regardless of this setting.

[group()] attribute support was added in just 1.13.0 (August 2023). On older versions of just, the attributes array is empty and all recipes are shown ungrouped, which is the correct and safe behavior for those versions.

Group nodes are non-runnable — they have no action-bar buttons and cannot be executed directly. They use the justfile icon and start collapsed.

Example justfile:

[group('Build')]
build:
    cargo build --release

[group('Build')]
clean:
    rm -rf target/

[group('Test')]
test:
    cargo test

# No group — appears at the top level
fmt:
    cargo fmt

With workspaceTasks.groups.justfile.enabled: true, the tree shows:

justfile
├── fmt                  ← ungrouped, shown at top level
├── Build                ← collapsible group node
│   ├── build
│   └── clean
└── Test                 ← collapsible group node
    └── test

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.groups.justfile.enabled": true
}

workspaceTasks.groups.expanded

   
Type: object
Default: { "favorites": true, "compoundTask": true, "recent": true }

Controls which special group headers are expanded by default when the task tree loads. Each property corresponds to one of the pinned groups at the top of the tree. Set a key to false to start that group collapsed.

Property Type Default Description
favorites boolean true Whether the Favorites group starts expanded
compoundTask boolean true Whether the Compound Tasks group starts expanded
recent boolean true Whether the Recent Tasks group starts expanded
queue boolean — Deprecated. Use compoundTask instead

Note: The queue key is retained for backward compatibility only. Set compoundTask instead.

Example — collapse Recent Tasks on startup:

{
  "workspaceTasks.groups.expanded": {
    "favorites": true,
    "compoundTask": true,
    "recent": false
  }
}