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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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Next Steps

• Getting Started — Installation and initial setup
• Configuration — All settings including application paths
• Supported Task Types — All supported build tools and frameworks