Run build and test tasks in Skink (tasks.json, cargo, npm)

Pick a task found in Cargo.toml; it runs in a terminal tab.

Press Shift+F10 to pick a task and run it in a terminal tab. Shift+F9 runs the last one again.

When it finishes, its errors show in the gutter and in the Problems list, as if a language server had reported them.

You do not need to write anything to start: Skink detects common tasks from your project files.

Task keys and commands

Key	Typed command	Does
`Shift`+`F10`	`:task`	Pick a task and run it
	`:task LABEL`	Run the task with that label
`Shift`+`F9`	`:task last` or `:rerun`	Run the last task again
`Shift`+`F8`	`:problems`	Errors and warnings, including the task’s
`F6` / `Shift`+`F6`	`:nextproblem` / `:prevproblem`	Next / previous problem in the file

While a debug session runs, F6 pauses the program instead. F9 toggles a breakpoint.

Detected tasks

From	Tasks
`Cargo.toml`	`cargo build`, `cargo check`, `cargo clippy`, `cargo test`, `cargo run`
`package.json`	its `scripts`, run with npm, pnpm, yarn or bun
`go.mod`	`go build ./...`, `go vet ./...`, `go test ./...`
`build.zig`	`zig build`, `zig build test`, `zig build run`
pytest setups (such as `pytest.ini`)	`pytest`
`Makefile`	`make` and `make TARGET` for its targets

Open the picker to see exactly what was found for your project.

Write your own tasks.json

Put your tasks in .skink/tasks.json, or reuse an existing .vscode/tasks.json. Skink reads a subset of VS Code’s format:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "test",
      "command": "cargo",
      "args": ["test", "--", "--nocapture"],
      "group": "test",
      "options": {
        "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
        "env": { "RUST_BACKTRACE": "1" }
      },
      "problemMatcher": "$rustc"
    },
    {
      "label": "lint file",
      "command": "eslint",
      "args": ["${file}"],
      "windows": { "command": "eslint.cmd" },
      "problemMatcher": ["$eslint-stylish"]
    }
  ]
}

Supported fields

label, command, args
options.cwd, options.env
group, problemMatcher
per-OS overrides under linux, osx and windows

Variables

Variable	Becomes
`${workspaceFolder}`	The project root
`${file}`	The current file
`${relativeFile}`	The current file, relative to the root
`${fileDirname}`	The current file’s folder
`${fileBasename}`	The current file’s name
`${env:NAME}`	The environment variable `NAME`

Problem matchers: errors in the gutter

When a task ends, its output goes through problem matchers that turn error messages into diagnostics.

Matcher	For
`$rustc`	Rust and cargo
`$tsc`	TypeScript
`$eslint-stylish`, `$eslint-compact`	ESLint
`$go`	Go
`$gcc`	C and C++ compilers
python tracebacks, pytest	Python

With no problemMatcher in a task, all of them are tried. Set "problemMatcher": [] to turn them off.

The problems stay until the task runs again.

Task output

Tasks run in a terminal tab, so colours, progress bars and interactive prompts work.

Ctrl+click a file:line in the output to open it.
Shift+F11 (or :scrollback) opens the output in a tab you can search.

See Terminal tabs.

For a quick one-off command, :run CMD runs it in the background in the project root and shows the output in a read-only tab.