BarTask

Quick-access status bar buttons for running npm scripts and shell commands — no terminal juggling required.

How it works

Add a .vscode/quicktasks.json file to your project and BarTask will place a clickable button in the right side of the status bar for each task. Click once to start, click again to stop.

{
  "tasks": [
    { "label": "Dev", "command": "npm run dev" },
    { "label": "Tests", "command": "npm test -- --watch" }
  ]
}

Features

• One button per task — each task gets its own dedicated status bar item
• Click to toggle — start and stop tasks without opening a terminal
• Color changes on run — the button turns the theme's error color while the task is active
• Custom icons — override the default play/stop codicons per task
• Process group kill — stopping a task also terminates any child processes it spawned (e.g. Node servers)
• Hot reload — changes to quicktasks.json are picked up immediately, no reload needed
• Output channel — stdout and stderr are streamed to the BarTask output panel

Configuration

Basic task

{
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Dev Server",
      "command": "npm run dev"
    }
  ]
}

Custom icons

Use any VS Code codicon name:

{
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Dev Server",
      "command": "npm run dev",
      "startIcon": "rocket",
      "stopIcon": "squirrel"
    }
  ]
}

Activation

BarTask activates automatically when a workspace contains .vscode/quicktasks.json.