Using VS Code Tasks with Go

From the VS Code Tasks documentation:

Tasks in VS Code can be configured to run scripts and start processes so that . . . existing tools can be used from within VS Code without having to enter a command line or write new code. Workspace or folder specific tasks are configured from the tasks.json file in the .vscode folder for a workspace.

To begin configuring tasks, run the Tasks: Configure Task command from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).

This will create a tasks.json file in your workspace’s .vscode folder.

Replace the contents of this file with the following and adjust the tasks as needed.

  1. {
  2.     "version": "2.0.0",
  3.     "type": "shell",
  4.     "command": "go",
  5.     "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
  6.     "tasks": [
  7.         {
  8.             "label": "install",
  9.             "args": ["install", "-v", "./..."],
  10.             "group": "build",
  11.         },
  12.         {
  13.             "label": "run",
  14.             "args": ["run", "${file}"],
  15.             "group": "build",
  16.         },
  17.         {
  18.             "label": "test",
  19.             "args": ["test", "-v", "./..."],
  20.             "group": "test",
  21.         },
  22.     ],
  23. }

You can run these tasks via the Tasks: Run Task command or by using the Ctrl+Shift+B shortcut.

You can also define additional tasks to run other commands, like go generate. Here’s an example of a task to run only a specific test (MyTestFunction, in this case):

  1. {
  2.     "label": "MyTestFunction",
  3.     "args": [ "test", "./...", "-test.run", "MyTestFunction"]
  4. }

If you want to invoke tools other than go, you will have to move the "command": "go" setting into the task objects. For example:

  1. {
  2.     "version": "2.0.0",
  3.     "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
  4.     "tasks": [
  5.         {
  6.             "label": "install",
  7.             "command": "go",
  8.             "args": ["install", "-v", "./..."],
  9.             "group": "build",
  10.             "type": "shell",
  11.         },
  12.         {
  13.             "label": "run",
  14.             "command": "go",
  15.             "args": ["run", "${file}"],
  16.             "group": "build",
  17.             "type": "shell",
  18.         },
  19.         {
  20.             "label": "test",
  21.             "command": "go",
  22.             "args": ["test", "-v", "./..."],
  23.             "group": "test",
  24.             "type": "shell",
  25.         },
  26.     ],
  27. }

Learn more by reading the VS Code Tasks documentation.