Discovery Settings

Table of Contents

  1. workspaceTasks.enabledTaskTypes
    1. Available Task Types
  2. workspaceTasks.enabledTaskTypePatterns
  3. workspaceTasks.disabledTaskTypePatterns
    1. Precedence summary
  4. workspaceTasks.taskfile.additionalFilePatterns
  5. workspaceTasks.taskfile.discoverGlobalTaskfile
  6. workspaceTasks.taskfile.showAliases
  7. workspaceTasks.shellEnabledTaskTypes
    1. Supported Shell Types
  8. workspaceTasks.shellPaths
  9. workspaceTasks.shellAdditionalExtensions
  10. Shebang Behavior
    1. Defaults per shell type
  11. Extensionless Shell Scripts
    1. Requirements
    2. Execution model
    3. Performance
    4. Enabling

workspaceTasks.enabledTaskTypes

   
Type: object
Default: See below 
{
  "ant": true,
  "bun": false,
  "cake": true,
  "cargo": true,
  "cargo-make": true,
  "cmake": true,
  "composer": true,
  "deno": true,
  "docker": true,
  "eslint": true,
  "github-actions": true,
  "go": true,
  "gradle": true,
  "grunt": true,
  "gulp": true,
  "just": true,
  "jupyter": true,
  "make": true,
  "maven": true,
  "mise": true,
  "msbuild": true,
  "npm": true,
  "pipenv": true,
  "pnpm": false,
  "poe": true,
  "poetry": true,
  "rake": true,
  "ruby": true,
  "shell": true,
  "typescript": true,
  "vscode": true,
  "webpack": true,
  "workspace": true,
  "yarn": false
}

Select which task-type providers are active. Disabling a provider prevents the extension from scanning for tasks of that type, which can improve performance and reduce noise in the task tree.

Available Task Types

  • ant - Ant
  • bun - Bun
  • cake - Cake Build
  • cargo - Cargo
  • cargo-make - Cargo Make
  • cmake - CMake
  • composer - Composer
  • deno - Deno
  • docker - Docker (dockerfile and docker-compose task types)
  • eslint - ESLint
  • github-actions - GitHub Actions
  • go - Go
  • gradle - Gradle
  • grunt - Grunt
  • gulp - Gulp
  • jupyter - Jupyter
  • just - Just
  • make - Makefile
  • maven - Maven
  • mise - Mise
  • msbuild - MSBuild
  • npm - NPM
  • pipenv - Pipenv
  • pnpm - PNPM
  • poe - Poe the Poet
  • poetry - Poetry
  • rake - Rake
  • ruby - Ruby (Gemfile / Rake tasks; see note below)
  • shell - Shell scripts
  • typescript - TypeScript Compiler
  • vscode - Visual Studio Code tasks
  • webpack - Webpack
  • workspace - Custom Workspace Tasks
  • yarn - Yarn

ruby is a dual-control type. The enabledTaskTypes.ruby key controls Gemfile / Rake-based Ruby tasks. Ruby shell scripts (*.rb files) are additionally controlled by workspaceTasks.shellEnabledTaskTypes.ruby. Disabling enabledTaskTypes.ruby disables both kinds of Ruby tasks; disabling only shellEnabledTaskTypes.ruby leaves Rake tasks visible while hiding *.rb shell scripts.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.enabledTaskTypes": {
    "npm": true,
    "gulp": true,
    "grunt": true,
    "ant": false,
    "gradle": false,
    "maven": false,
    "shell": true,
    "vscode": true,
    "workspace": true
  }
}

Screenshot - Enabled Task Types

workspaceTasks.enabledTaskTypePatterns

v1.7.0 Glob pattern controls for task type visibility.

   
Type: string[]
Default: []
Scope: window

Glob patterns matched against task type config keys (the same names used in enabledTaskTypes) to enable. When the array is non-empty it acts as a whitelist — only task types whose config key matches at least one pattern are shown. All non-matching types are hidden regardless of their enabledTaskTypes boolean.

enabledTaskTypePatterns has the highest priority. When this array is non-empty it completely overrides disabledTaskTypePatterns and all enabledTaskTypes boolean values. Set it to ["*"] to restore the “show all” baseline while still using disabledTaskTypePatterns for exclusions.

Example — show only npm and pnpm:

{
  "workspaceTasks.enabledTaskTypePatterns": ["npm", "pnpm"]
}

Example — show only Python-ecosystem types:

{
  "workspaceTasks.enabledTaskTypePatterns": ["p*"],
  "workspaceTasks.disabledTaskTypePatterns": ["pipenv"]
}

Example — show all types (restore default while keeping disabled patterns active):

{
  "workspaceTasks.enabledTaskTypePatterns": ["*"],
  "workspaceTasks.disabledTaskTypePatterns": ["bun", "yarn"]
}

workspaceTasks.disabledTaskTypePatterns

v1.7.0 Glob pattern controls for task type visibility.

   
Type: string[]
Default: []
Scope: window

Glob patterns matched against task type config keys (the same names used in enabledTaskTypes) to disable. Only evaluated when enabledTaskTypePatterns is empty. Matching types are hidden regardless of their enabledTaskTypes boolean value.

ruby dual-control. disabledTaskTypePatterns: ["ruby"] disables both Rake/Gemfile tasks and *.rb shell scripts. To disable only the shell scripts, leave enabledTaskTypes.ruby unchanged and set shellEnabledTaskTypes.ruby: false instead.

Example — disable bun and yarn:

{
  "workspaceTasks.disabledTaskTypePatterns": ["bun", "yarn"]
}

Example — disable all Docker-related providers:

{
  "workspaceTasks.disabledTaskTypePatterns": ["docker*"]
}

Precedence summary

Evaluation order — first matching rule wins:

Priority Condition Result
1 enabledTaskTypePatterns non-empty and matches config key enabled
2 enabledTaskTypePatterns non-empty and does not match disabled
3 disabledTaskTypePatterns non-empty and matches config key disabled
4 enabledTaskTypes[configKey] present respect the boolean
5 All other cases enabled (opt-out default)

workspaceTasks.taskfile.additionalFilePatterns

   
Type: string[]
Default: []
Scope: resource

Additional glob patterns for discovering Taskfiles with non-standard names. These patterns are merged with the built-in Taskfile patterns.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.taskfile.additionalFilePatterns": [
    "**/Taskfile.ci.yml",
    "**/backend/MyTasks.yml"
  ]
}

workspaceTasks.taskfile.discoverGlobalTaskfile

   
Type: boolean
Default: false
Scope: resource

When enabled, Workspace Tasks discovers Task tasks from global Taskfiles in your home directory ($HOME) using Taskfile filename variants.

Known global candidates are watched for create/change/delete events. When one of those files changes, Workspace Tasks refreshes and re-scans $HOME so global tasks stay current.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.taskfile.discoverGlobalTaskfile": true
}

workspaceTasks.taskfile.showAliases

   
Type: boolean
Default: true
Scope: resource

Controls whether Taskfile aliases are shown as child items in the task tree. When enabled, a Task task with one or more aliases is shown as a collapsible parent item and each alias appears as an individually runnable child.

When disabled, aliases remain in metadata but are not shown as child items.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.taskfile.showAliases": false
}

workspaceTasks.shellEnabledTaskTypes

   
Type: object
Default: See below
Scope: resource 
{
  "bash": true,
  "batch": true,
  "sh": true,
  "zsh": true,
  "fish": true,
  "nushell": true,
  "perl": true,
  "pwsh": true,
  "python": true,
  "ruby": true,
  "other": true,
  "extensionless": false
}

Enable or disable individual shell-script sub-types. This allows fine-grained control over which script file types are recognized as tasks when workspaceTasks.enabledTaskTypes.shell is true.

Supported Shell Types

  • bash - Bash
  • batch - Batch (.bat / .cmd)
  • fish - Fish
  • nushell - NuShell
  • perl - Perl
  • pwsh - PowerShell
  • python - Python
  • ruby - Ruby
  • sh - POSIX Shell
  • zsh - Zsh
  • other - Any extension registered via workspaceTasks.shellAdditionalExtensions
  • extensionless - Extensionless files that have a shebang line (#!) and an executable bit (chmod +x) — disabled by default; see below

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.shellEnabledTaskTypes": {
    "bash": true,
    "pwsh": true,
    "batch": true,
    "python": false,
    "ruby": false,
    "perl": false
  }
}

Screenshot - Shell Enabled Task Types

workspaceTasks.shellPaths

   
Type: object
Default: See below
Scope: resource 
{
  "bash": "bash",
  "batch": "cmd.exe",
  "fish": "fish",
  "nushell": "nu",
  "perl": "perl",
  "pwsh": "pwsh",
  "python": "python",
  "ruby": "ruby",
  "sh": "sh",
  "zsh": "zsh"
}

Specify custom interpreter paths for shell script types. Each key is a shell type and the value is the path to the interpreter executable. The configured interpreter is used when a script does not contain a shebang line (#!), or when the shell type has useShebang set to false.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.shellPaths": {
    "bash": "/usr/local/bin/bash",
    "pwsh": "C:\\Program Files\\PowerShell\\7\\pwsh.exe",
    "python": "python3"
  }
}

Screenshot - Shell Paths

workspaceTasks.shellAdditionalExtensions

   
Type: object
Default: {}
Scope: resource

Register extra file extensions (beyond the built-in defaults) that should be treated as shell tasks. The key is a file extension without the leading dot and the value is the path to the interpreter to use for that extension.

Example:

{
  "workspaceTasks.shellAdditionalExtensions": {
    "myext": "/usr/local/bin/myshell",
    "tool": "python"
  }
}

Screenshot - Shell Additional Extensions

Shebang Behavior

When the extension processes a shell-script file it applies two independent checks:

Property Description
requireShebang When true, only files that contain a shebang line (#!) are shown as tasks. Files without a shebang are silently ignored for that shell type.
useShebang When true, files that contain a shebang line are executed directly (e.g. ./script.py), letting the OS invoke the interpreter named in the shebang. Files without a shebang still use the configured interpreter.

Defaults per shell type

Shell type requireShebang useShebang Notes
bash false true Scripts with shebangs run directly
sh false true Scripts with shebangs run directly
zsh false true Scripts with shebangs run directly
python false true Scripts with shebangs run directly
perl false true Scripts with shebangs run directly
ruby false true Scripts with shebangs run directly
fish false false Always uses the configured interpreter
pwsh false false Always uses the configured interpreter
batch false false Always uses the configured interpreter
nushell false false Always uses the configured interpreter

If a script has a shebang but is not marked executable, direct execution will fail. Either make the script executable or configure workspaceTasks.shellPaths with the desired interpreter — the configured interpreter is always used when no shebang is present.

Extensionless Shell Scripts

Opt-in feature — disabled by default. Enable with workspaceTasks.shellEnabledTaskTypes.extensionless: true.

The extension can discover shell scripts that have no file extension (e.g. scripts named build, deploy, run). Because scanning every extensionless file in a workspace has measurable I/O overhead, this feature is off by default.

Requirements

A file is included as an extensionless task only when both conditions are met:

  1. Shebang line — the first two bytes are #! (e.g. #!/usr/bin/env bash).
  2. Executable bit — the file has at least one execute permission bit set (chmod +x). On Windows, where execute bits do not exist, any extensionless file with a shebang is included automatically.

Execution model

Extensionless tasks are run directly — the extension does not extract the interpreter from the shebang. Instead the OS kernel reads the shebang at launch time and invokes the correct interpreter. This means the task command is simply the relative file path (e.g. ./build), and no additional configuration is needed regardless of which interpreter the shebang names.

Performance

When enabled, extensionless discovery runs as a background scan that is independent of the main shell-type discovery. The treeview populates first with typed-extension scripts (.sh, .py, etc.) and then refreshes a second time when the extensionless scan completes. The shebang cache is shared with typed-extension scripts so repeated refreshes are fast. Results from the previous scan are returned synchronously on subsequent getTasks() calls.

To minimize I/O, the following directories are excluded from the scan before any file reads:

node_modules, .git, .venv, dist, out, build, coverage, .vscode, .vscode-test

Additionally, hidden files (names starting with .) are excluded at the filtering stage — files such as .env and .gitignore have an empty extension but are not scripts.

Enabling 

{
  "workspaceTasks.shellEnabledTaskTypes": {
    "extensionless": true
  }
}

In large workspaces with many extensionless files the first scan may take a noticeable amount of time. Use the extension’s built-in exclusion patterns (workspaceTasks.excludePatterns) to limit the scan scope if needed.