Requirements

Table of Contents

  1. Visual Studio Code Version
  2. External Tool Requirements
    1. Package Managers
    2. Build Systems
    3. Task Runners
    4. DevOps & Containers
    5. Data Science & Notebooks
    6. Scripts
  3. Installation Instructions
  4. Custom Tool Paths
  5. Next Steps
  6. Workspace Trust

Visual Studio Code Version

  • Minimum: Visual Studio Code 1.105.1 or later
    • Editor must use Visual Studio Code Engine with this minimum version
    • Editor must support Open VSX, Visual Studio Marketplace, or manual install of VSIX files

External Tool Requirements

The extension discovers tasks regardless of whether tools are installed. However, executing a task requires the corresponding tool to be available in your system PATH.

Package Managers

Tool Used For Install
Node.js + npm npm tasks nodejs.org
pnpm pnpm tasks pnpm.io
Yarn Yarn tasks yarnpkg.com
Bun Bun tasks bun.sh
Composer PHP Composer tasks getcomposer.org
Pipenv Python Pipenv tasks pipenv.pypa.io
Poe the Poet Python Poe tasks poethepoet.natn.io
Poetry Python Poetry tasks python-poetry.org

Build Systems

Tool Used For Install
Apache Ant Ant tasks ant.apache.org
Gradle Gradle tasks gradle.org
MSBuild .NET tasks Included with Visual Studio / .NET SDK
Make Makefile tasks Included with build tools on most platforms
Apache Maven Maven tasks maven.apache.org

Task Runners

Tool Used For Install
Cargo Cargo / cargo-make tasks Included with Rust
cargo-make cargo-make tasks cargo install --force cargo-make
Grunt Grunt tasks npm install -g grunt-cli
Gulp Gulp tasks npm install -g gulp-cli
Just Just tasks just.systems
mise mise tasks mise.jdx.dev

DevOps & Containers

Tool Used For Install
Docker Docker & Docker Compose tasks, and act docker.com
act GitHub Actions local execution nektosact.com

Data Science & Notebooks

Tool Used For Install
Jupyter Extension Jupyter Notebook tasks VS Code Extensions Marketplace

The Jupyter Extension must be installed and a Jupyter Server must be configured. See the Jupyter Extension documentation for setup instructions.

Scripts

Interpreter Used For
Bash / Zsh / sh .sh, .bash, .zsh scripts
Fish .fish scripts
PowerShell .ps1 scripts
Command Prompt .bat, .cmd scripts

Installation Instructions

Visit each tool’s official website (linked above) for installation guides specific to your operating system. Most tools are available via common package managers:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install node yarn just make act

# Windows (winget)
winget install OpenJS.NodeJS
winget install nektos.act

# Linux (apt)
sudo apt install nodejs npm make

Custom Tool Paths

If tools are installed in non-standard locations, configure their paths in settings.json:

{
  "workspaceTasks.applicationPath.act": "/usr/local/bin/act",
  "workspaceTasks.applicationPath.ant": "/opt/ant/bin/ant",
  "workspaceTasks.applicationPath.maven": "/opt/maven/bin/mvn"
}

See the Configuration Reference for all available path settings.

Next Steps

Workspace Trust

Workspace Tasks respects VS Code’s Workspace Trust model.

No tasks are discovered or displayed when a workspace is not trusted. This applies to all task types and all providers — neither file parsing nor CLI invocations will occur in an untrusted workspace.

To enable task discovery, trust the workspace via the status bar trust indicator or the Workspaces: Manage Workspace Trust command.

See Troubleshooting: Workspace Trust for details.