Debugging & Tasks

Tasks

Turn a shell command your project needs, such as build, lint, test, or watch, into something you can run with a click, a shortcut, or automatically.

What a task is

A task gives a terminal command a name. Instead of retyping npm run build (or whatever your project uses), you run Tasks: Run Task → build from the Command Palette, bind it to a shortcut, or have it run when you open the folder.

1

Generate tasks automatically

Run Tasks: Configure Task. Gyaanmitra looks for a package.json, a Makefile, or something similar, and offers tasks for the scripts it finds.

2

Customize in tasks.json

Adjust anything it generated, or write your own, in .vscode/tasks.json.

3

Run it

Ctrl+Shift+B runs your project's default build task. Anything else goes through Tasks: Run Task.

.vscode/tasks.json

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "build",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "npm run build",
      "group": { "kind": "build", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": ["$tsc"]
    }
  ]
}

Auto-detection

Gyaanmitra can find tasks in common project files before you write tasks.json:

npm / yarn / pnpm: scripts in package.json (the npm extension)
Gulp, Grunt, Jake: tasks defined in their usual config files
TypeScript / make: when those tools are present in the folder

Run Tasks: Configure Task and pick from the list, or run a detected task from Tasks: Run Task. Scripts named build, compile, or watch are treated as build tasks by default.

Problem matchers

The problemMatcher field turns raw command output into clickable rows in the Problems panel. A TypeScript compiler error becomes a link to the file and line, so you do not have to parse the terminal text yourself. Gyaanmitra includes matchers for common compilers and linters. Point yours at $tsc, $eslint-stylish, or a custom pattern for anything else.

Background and watch tasks

Mark a long-running task (a dev server, a file watcher) with "isBackground": true. Gyaanmitra then does not wait for it to exit before treating it as started. It watches the output for a pattern (set with problemMatcher.background) that means the task is ready.

Run a task automatically on folder open

Set "runOptions": { "runOn": "folderOpen" } on a task, such as a dev server or a file watcher, and it starts when you open the project.

Tasks and Gyaanmitra AI

Gyaanmitra AI can run any task the same way it runs a terminal command. Ask it to run the build and fix any errors. It will start the task, read the Problems panel, and keep going.