One failure, and exactly what it takes down

A broken build skips only what depends on it. Everything else runs, and
each skip names the failure behind it.

packages/a has a syntax error. c#build depends on a#build. b
and d don't:

$ vx run build test --all
 ⏺︎     7ms success no-cache packages/e#codegen
 ◼︎    10ms failed  miss     packages/a#test
 ◼︎    10ms failed  miss     packages/a#build
 ⊘         skipped          packages/c#build • blocked by packages/a#build
┌─ packages/a#test > failed (exit 1)
…
12 | export const = ;
                  ^
error: Expected identifier but found "="

b and d were cache hits, so they print nothing. A skip names the
failure at the root of its chain, so you fix one thing.

Demo workspace · vx 69617eb · 2026-10-23

Pick how far a failure reaches

--continue=	On a failure
deps-ok (default)	skip its dependents, run the rest
never	stop dispatch; running tasks finish
always, or bare --continue	run dependents anyway

$ vx run build test --all --continue=never --force
 ⏺︎    13ms success no-cache packages/e#codegen
 ◼︎     9ms failed  miss     packages/a#build
 ⊘         skipped          packages/c#test
 ⊘         skipped          packages/d#test
 ⊘         skipped          packages/b#test
 ⊘         skipped          packages/e#build
 ⊘         skipped          packages/c#build • blocked by packages/a#build
 ⏺︎    12ms success miss     packages/d#build
 ⏺︎    16ms success miss     packages/b#build
 ◼︎    10ms failed  miss     packages/a#test

Running tasks finished (b#build, d#build, a#test). Nothing new
started. A skip with no blocker means the run stopped.

How many at once

--concurrency takes a count or a share of the CPUs:

$ vx run build --all --concurrency 8
$ vx run build --all --concurrency 50%   # half the CPUs, never below 1
$ vx run lint --all --concurrency 200%   # I/O-bound work can go over

The default is the core count, capped by the container's CPU quota.
run.concurrency in .vx/workspace.ts changes it for everyone.

Cache hits don't count: restores run on their own lane, up to twice the
limit.

A table when you want one

--verbosity 1 adds one row per task after the run:

$ vx run build --all --verbosity 1
packages/e#codegen  success                                    10ms
packages/a#build    failed (exit 1)                             8ms
packages/c#build    skipped (blocked by packages/a#build)       0ms

Every flag is in the CLI reference. More at
vznjs.github.io/vx.

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Originally published on the vx blog. vx is open-source (MIT) task orchestration with a build cache: vznjs.github.io/vx · GitHub.

_{Written with AI assistance.}