How to run a command automatically in VS Code when you open a project

Sometimes, I trip myself up by forgetting to run webpack when I open a JavaScript project! My default is have webpack watching for edits and automatically trigger bundling.

Usually it's when I'm groggy in the morning and I get to a point where I expect some output to have changed, and nothing is happening. It takes me a minute to orientate myself and have that doh! moment, and realise that I haven't spun up webpack yet. 🤦‍♂️

So, to spare myself this ignominy again, it would be great to have webpack launch when I open a JavaScript project that uses webpack. VS Code has tasks built-in for this very thing. You can check out the Tasks User Guide for the full skinny. I will just show you to tackle my use case.

I want to execute one of my npm scripts from my package.json. On the command-line, I would run npm run webpack. You can run whatever command you wish.

 {
   // ...other stuff

   "scripts": {
    "webpack": "webpack --mode development --watch",
   }
 }

TLDR

Add this task to the workspace tasks.json:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Run npm webpack on startup",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "npm run webpack",
      "windows": {
        "command": "npm run webpack"
      },
      "presentation": {
        "reveal": "always",
        "panel": "new"
      },
      "runOptions": { "runOn": "folderOpen" }
    }
  ]
}

Enable automatic tasks by running the command Tasks: Allow Automatic Tasks in Folder.

How to create a tasks file

The tasks specific to your project are stored in <project folder>/.vscode/tasks.json. You can create the file yourself, or you can run the Tasks: Configure Task command to build a template file for you.

The command asks you a couple of questions before creating the file.

1. Select a task to configure: You can skip this and hit Enter.
2. Select a task template: Select the "Others" option.

This is the skeleton tasks.json that you get.

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "echo",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "echo Hello"
        }
    ]
}

How to create a task

So, we want to add a new task object. There is Intellisense support to assist you, so you can press Ctrl+Space to get a list of the properties.

Here is a list of the most important task properties:

• label: The label used in the user interface.
• type: For a custom task, this can either be shell or process. If shell is specified, the command is interpreted as a shell command e.g. bash, cmd. If process is specified, the command is interpreted as a process to execute. We want to select shell.
• command: The actual command to execute. We want to execute npm run webpack.
• windows: Windows specific properties. This will be used instead of the default properties when the command is executed on the Windows operating system. This also has a command property, I don't know if it is necessary to specify your command in here again if you are Windows user. I guess it depends on your particular command. I added it anyway.
• presentation: This defines how the task output is handled in the terminal. It offers the following properties:
  • reveal: Controls whether the Integrated Terminal panel is brought to front. Valid values are:
    • always - The panel is always brought to front. This is the default. I prefer to see the command running on startup, so this option is what I want!
    • never - The user must explicitly bring the terminal panel to the front themselves.
    • silent - The terminal panel is brought to front only if the output is not scanned for errors and warnings.
  • panel: Controls whether the terminal instance is shared between task runs. Possible values are:
    • shared: The terminal is shared and the output of other task runs are added to the same terminal.
    • dedicated: The terminal is dedicated to a specific task. If that task is executed again, the terminal is reused.
    • new: Every execution of that task is using a new clean terminal. A clean panel is preferable. Check this!
• runOptions: Defines when and how a task is run. It has the property:
  • runOn: Specifies when a task is run.
    • default: The task will only be run when executed through the Run Task command.
    • folderOpen: The task will be run when the containing folder is opened. This is what we want!

My task

This is what did the trick for me:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Run npm webpack on startup",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "npm run webpack",
      "windows": {
        "command": "npm run webpack"
      },
      "presentation": {
        "reveal": "always",
        "panel": "new"
      },
      "runOptions": { "runOn": "folderOpen" }
    }
  ]
}

The first time you open a project that contains a task which runs on "folderOpen", you should get a prompt asking if you want to allow tasks to run automatically in that folder. I didn't get this!

You can enable automatic tasks yourself by running the command Tasks: Allow Automatic Tasks in Folder.

The result

Next time you open your project, you will see your task running automatically like so:

Hurrah! One less thing to think about! 😅

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Comments

[Mike]

What would you think if I told you that my entire development environment builds itself and starts the dev server(s) :-)? All completely in a browser with nothing installed on my laptop.

I shared my thoughts on my blog: mikenikles.com/blog/why-i-use-a-cl...

[Rob OLeary]

I would think its a bit mad Mike, without looking at the details! I can see the appeal to have your environment in the cloud. Im still a bit old school in that I work offline quite a bit, especially when I travel. So, I would find it hard to switch to your setup. Interesting read tho 👍

[Mike]

Hehe agreed, it does sound a bit mad 🙂. You're right, the need for an internet connection is not ideal until there's affordable internet access available anywhere.

[Diego]

This is going to be lovely for my angular projects

[Rob OLeary]

😎🤟

[Ivan Borshchov]

Thanks, you inspired me! I created another very related Guide but shorter and with a little bit different commands: hinty.io/ivictbor/autostart-multip...

[Rob OLeary]

Cool! Its very handy for spinning up an environment 👌

[Varun S]

I didn't even know tasks existed! Thanks for shedding light on this topic!

[Rob OLeary]