build / test — VS Code Tasks via CUE

sayt build finds the task labeled "build" in .vscode/tasks.json and runs it. sayt test does the same for "test". dependsOn chains resolve automatically. Platform overrides (windows.command) are applied.

CUE drives the extraction and is installed via mise tool stub — no manual setup.

Required Schema

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "build",                        // must be exactly "build" or "test"
      "type": "shell",                         // must be "shell"
      "command": "pnpm",
      "args": ["run", "build"],
      "group": { "kind": "build", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": [],                    // can be empty, or ["$tsc"], ["$rustc"], ["$msCompile"]
      "dependsOn": ["install"],                // optional
      "windows": { "command": "pnpm.cmd" }     // optional per-platform override
    }
  ]
}

Requirements:

• Labels are exactly build and test. Anything else is invisible to sayt.
• "type": "shell" is mandatory.
• isDefault: true on the default build and test tasks.
• dependsOn targets must also be defined in tasks (without isDefault).

Canonical Patterns

Node.js / pnpm (monorepo with Turbo)

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    { "label": "install", "type": "shell", "command": "pnpm install --frozen-lockfile" },
    {
      "label": "build", "type": "shell",
      "command": "pnpm -C ../.. exec turbo --filter ./guis/web assemble",
      "group": { "kind": "build", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": ["$tsc"],
      "dependsOn": ["install"]
    },
    {
      "label": "test", "type": "shell",
      "command": "pnpm -C ../.. exec turbo --filter ./guis/web test",
      "group": { "kind": "test", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": ["$tsc"],
      "dependsOn": ["install"]
    }
  ]
}

For standalone (non-monorepo) pnpm, drop turbo and use pnpm build / pnpm test directly. For Bun, swap pnpm → bun and pnpm install --frozen-lockfile → bun install --frozen-lockfile.

JVM (Gradle, with Windows override)

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "build", "type": "shell",
      "command": "./gradlew",
      "windows": { "command": ".\\gradlew.bat" },
      "args": ["assemble"],
      "group": { "kind": "build", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": []
    },
    {
      "label": "test", "type": "shell",
      "command": "./gradlew",
      "windows": { "command": ".\\gradlew.bat" },
      "args": ["test"],
      "group": { "kind": "test", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": []
    }
  ]
}

For Maven: mvn with ["compile", "-pl", "<module>", "-am", "-q"] for build and ["test", "-pl", "<module>", "-am"] for test. No dependsOn needed — Maven and Gradle handle deps internally.

Go (with code generation via dependsOn)

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "build", "type": "shell",
      "command": "go",
      "args": ["build", "-o", "app"],
      "group": { "kind": "build", "isDefault": true },
      "dependsOn": ["sqlc-generate", "buf-generate"],
      "problemMatcher": []
    },
    {
      "label": "sqlc-generate", "type": "shell",
      "command": "sqlc", "args": ["generate"],
      "group": { "kind": "build" }, "problemMatcher": []
    },
    {
      "label": "buf-generate", "type": "shell",
      "command": "buf", "args": ["generate"],
      "group": { "kind": "build" }, "problemMatcher": []
    },
    {
      "label": "test", "type": "shell",
      "command": "gotestsum",
      "args": ["--format", "github-actions", "--", "./..."],
      "group": { "kind": "test", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": []
    }
  ]
}

For vendored Go projects, add "-mod=vendor" to test args and use ./hack/build (or whatever the project's build script is) as the build command.

Python / uv

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "build", "type": "shell",
      "command": "uv", "args": ["build"],
      "group": { "kind": "build", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": []
    },
    {
      "label": "test", "type": "shell",
      "command": "uv", "args": ["run", "pytest", "-v", "--tb=short"],
      "group": { "kind": "test", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": []
    }
  ]
}

Rust / Cargo

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "build", "type": "shell",
      "command": "cargo", "args": ["build", "--locked"],
      "group": { "kind": "build", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": ["$rustc"]
    },
    {
      "label": "test", "type": "shell",
      "command": "cargo", "args": ["test", "--locked"],
      "group": { "kind": "test", "isDefault": true },
      "problemMatcher": ["$rustc"]
    }
  ]
}

--locked enforces Cargo.lock. Cargo runs unit and integration tests in one pass.

Adapting Other Languages

For languages not shown here, map your normal terminal command into the schema above:

Language	Build	Test	Notes
Scala / sbt	sbt compile	sbt test	For multi-module, use sbt <module>/compile
Elixir / Mix	mix compile (depends on mix deps.get)	mix test	Chain deps.get via dependsOn
Ruby / Rake	bundle exec rake <build-task> (depends on bundle install)	bundle exec rake test	bundle exec rake -T to discover tasks
C / autotools	make -j$(nproc) (depends on autoreconf -i → ./configure)	make check VERBOSE=yes	Chain via dependsOn; autotools convention is make check
.NET	dotnet build --configuration Release	dotnet test --configuration Release --no-build (depends on build)	problemMatcher: ["$msCompile"]
Zig	zig build	zig build test	Nothing fancy needed

Problem matchers worth knowing: ["$tsc"] for TypeScript, ["$rustc"] for Rust, ["$msCompile"] for C#/MSBuild, ["$gcc"] for C/C++, [] when you don't care.

Writing Good Tasks

1. Label exactly build and test. Anything else is invisible to sayt.
2. Use "type": "shell". Required.
3. One default per group. isDefault: true on the primary build and test tasks.
4. Use dependsOn for prerequisites. Code generation, dependency install, configure steps — make them separate tasks and chain them.
5. Windows overrides for path-flavored commands. ./gradlew vs .\gradlew.bat.
6. Match your terminal command. If it doesn't work when you type it, wrapping it in tasks.json won't save you.
7. Don't wire containers in here. build/test is the app layer. If the task needs docker, the layer is wrong — use launch/integrate instead.

Current flags

Run sayt help build and sayt help test for current flags.