tsk

README

tsk: a simple task runner with TOML syntax

example

$ cat tasks.toml
[tasks.hello_world]
cmds = ["echo Hello World!"]

$ tsk hello_world
Hello World!

see examples/tasks.toml for complete usage and configuration reference.

installation

via Homebrew:

brew tap notnmeyer/tsk
brew install tsk

alternatively, you can install directly from releases page or see the install_release script.

from source

• without tsk installed go build -o ./bin/tsk -v cmd/tsk/tsk.go
• with tsk installed tsk build

features

tasks.toml locations

tsk will look for a tasks.toml file in the current directory, looking in parent directories if one isn't found.

you can specify a file in another location or with another name with the --file flag.

dependencies and dependency groups

tasks can depend on other tasks as dependencies via a task's deps key. dependencies are organized in groups represented in toml as nested arrays. dependency groups are executed in the order they are defined in the deps key, while tasks within a group are executed in parallel.

[tasks.one]
cmds = ["echo one"]

[tasks.two]
cmds = ["echo two"]

[tasks.three]
cmds = ["echo three"]

[tasks.main]
deps = [
  ["one", "two"], # one and two will run in parallel
  ["three"],      # three will run after one and two have finished
]
cmds = ["echo main"]

let shell be shell

writing shell in toml or yaml files sucks—you miss out of syntax highlighting, linting, and other tools like shellcheck.

you may omit a task's cmds field, which instead runs a script with the same name as the task from the tsk directory relative to the location of your tasks.toml file.

if you need to write anything more complicated than one or two short commands in a task, use a script!

try tsk --file examples/tasks.toml no_cmd to see this in action.

environment variables

tsk loads environment variables and merges them with the precendence listed below. items earlier in the list are overriden by items lower in the list.

1. the top-level env key
2. the top-level dotenv key
3. tasks.<task_name>.env
4. the parent process, e.g., MY_VAR=hey tsk ...
5. tasks.<task_name>.dotenv

"pure" tasks

setting pure = true on a task will prevent the parent process's environment from being inherited. Similarly, the CLI argument --pure will prevent any task from inheriting the parent's env. the only exceptions are $USER and $HOME, which are always inherited.

toml 1.1.0

some upcoming toml 1.1.0 features are supported. of note, newlines and trailing commas are now allowed in inline tables:

[tasks.example]
env = {
  msg1 = "hello",
  msg2 = "world",
}
cmds = ["echo $msg1 $msg2"]