ds: run dev scripts

Dev scripts are the short names we give to common tasks and long commands in a software project. ds finds and runs dev scripts in your project's configuration file (e.g., Cargo.toml, package.json, pyproject.toml, etc.):

pip install ds-run  # or: uv tool install ds-run
ds --list           # list the tasks
ds clean lint test  # run multiple tasks
ds format:*         # run tasks that match a glob
ds test -vv         # pass arguments to tasks
ds -e PORT=8080 run # set environment variables
ds +cspell test     # suppress errors
ds -w* build        # supports monorepo/workspaces

Example

Suppose you want to use pytest with coverage to run unit tests, doctests, and to generate a branch-level coverage report:

coverage run --branch --source=src -m \
  pytest \
    --doctest-modules \
    --doctest-ignore-import-errors \
    src test;
coverage report -m

Instead of typing that, we just add a script to our pyproject.toml file:

[tool.ds.scripts]
test = """
  coverage run --branch --source=src -m \
    pytest \
      --doctest-modules \
      --doctest-ignore-import-errors \
      src test;
  coverage report -m
"""

And now you can run it with a quick shorthand:

ds test

Benefits

♻️ Works with existing projects
Almost a drop-in replacement for:

Node (package.json): npm run, yarn run, pnpm run, bun run
Python (pyproject.toml): pdm run, rye run
PHP (composer.json): composer run-script
Rust (Cargo.toml): cargo run-script

Experimental: We also support an extremely small subset of the Makefile format (see #68).

See: Inspirations

🗂️ Add monorepo/workspace support anywhere
Easily manage monorepos and sub-projects, even if they use different tooling.

🏃 Run multiple tasks with custom arguments for each task
Provide command-line arguments for multiple tasks as well as simple argument interpolation.

🪄 Minimal magic
Tries to use familiar syntax and a few clear rules. Checks for basic cycles and raises helpful error messages if things go wrong.

🚀 Minimal dependencies
Currently working on removing all of these (see #46):

python (3.8+)
tomli (for python < 3.11)
graphlib_backport (for python < 3.9)

Limitations

ds does not strive to be an all-in-one tool for every project and is not a replacement for package management tools or make. Here are some things that are not supported or not yet implemented.

Not Supported: Lifecycle Events
Not Supported: call Tasks
Partial Support: Makefile format (see #68)
In Progress: Shell Completions (see #44)
In Progress: Remove Python Dependency (see #46)

Install

ds is typically installed at the system-level to make it available across all your projects.

python -m pip install ds-run

# or, if you use uv:
uv tool install ds-run

You can also download a Cosmopolitan binary which runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux:

export LOCAL_BIN=$HOME/.local/bin # or anywhere on your PATH
mkdir -p $LOCAL_BIN
wget -O $LOCAL_BIN/ds -N https://github.com/metaist/ds/releases/latest/download/ds
chmod +x $LOCAL_BIN/ds
ds --version
# NOTE: it takes a few seconds the first time you run it

If you just want to try ds:

uvx --from ds-run ds --version
# or
pipx run ds-run --version

Usage

Usage: ds [--help | --version] [--debug]
          [--dry-run]
          [--no-config]
          [--no-project]
          [--list]
          [--cwd PATH]
          [--file PATH]
          [--env-file PATH]
          [(--env NAME=VALUE)...]
          [--workspace GLOB]...
          [--pre][--post]
          [<task>...]

Options:
  -h, --help
    Show this message and exit.

  --version
    Show program version and exit.

  --debug
    Show debug messages.

  --cwd PATH
    Set the starting working directory (default: --file parent).
    PATH is resolved relative to the current working directory.

  --dry-run
    Show which tasks would be run, but don't actually run them.

  --env-file PATH
    File with environment variables. This file is read before --env
    values are applied.

  -e NAME=VALUE, --env NAME=VALUE
    Set one or more environment variables. Supersedes any values set in
    an `--env-file`.

  -f PATH, --file PATH
    File with task and workspace definitions (default: search in parents).

    Read more about the configuration file:
    https://github.com/metaist/ds

  -l, --list
    List available tasks and exit.

  --no-config
    Do not search for or load a configuration file. Supersedes `--file`.

  --no-project
    Do not search for project dependencies, e.g., `.venv`, `node_modules`

  -w GLOB, --workspace GLOB
    Patterns which indicate in which workspaces to run tasks.

    GLOB filters the list of workspaces defined in `--file`.
    The special pattern '*' matches all of the workspaces.

    Read more about configuring workspaces:
    https://github.com/metaist/ds#workspaces

  --pre, --post
    EXPERIMENTAL: Run tasks with pre- and post- names.

  <task>
    One or more tasks to run with task-specific arguments.

    The simplest way to pass arguments to tasks is to put them in quotes:

    $ ds 'echo "Hello world"'

    For more complex cases you can use a colon (`:`) to indicate start of arguments and double-dash (`--`) to indicate the end:

    $ ds echo: "Hello from" -- echo: "the world"

    If the first <option> starts with a hyphen (`-`), you may omit the
    colon (`:`). If there are no more tasks after the last option, you
    may omit the double-dash (`--`).

    Tasks are executed in order across any relevant workspaces. If any
    task returns a non-zero code, task execution stops unless the
    <task> was prefixed with a (`+`) in which case execution continues.

    Read more about error suppression:
    https://github.com/metaist/ds#error-suppression

When should I make a dev script?

Typically, you should make a dev script for important steps in your development process. For example, most projects will need a way to run linters and unit tests (see the test example above). Some projects also need a way to start up a server, fetch configuration files, or clean up generated files.

Dev scripts act as another form of documentation that helps developers understand how to build and work on your project.

Where should I put my config?

ds supports .json and .toml configuration files (see examples) which typically go in the top-level of your project. To avoid making lots of top-level files, ds can use common project configuration files.

Node: package.json under scripts
PHP: composer.json under scripts
Python: pyproject.toml under [tool.ds.scripts] ([tool.pdm.scripts] and [tool.rye.scripts] also supported)
Rust: Cargo.toml under [package.metadata.scripts] or [workspace.metadata.scripts]
Other: ds.toml under [scripts]

Experimental: We support an extremely small subset of the Makefile format (see #68).

How does `ds` find my config?

If you don't provide a config file using the --file option, ds will search the current directory and all of its parents for files with these name patterns in the following order:

ds.toml
pyproject.toml
uv.toml
package.json
Cargo.toml
composer.json
[Mm]akefile

If you provide one or more --workspace options, the file must contain a workspace key. Otherwise, then the file must contain a task key.

If the appropriate key cannot be found, searching continues up the directory tree. The first file that has the appropriate key is used.

One exception to the search process is when using the --workspace option: If a workspace member contains a file with the same name as the configuration file, that file is used within the workspace (e.g., a workspace defined in Cargo.toml will try to find a Cargo.toml in each workspace). Otherwise, the usual search process is used.

Where do tasks run?

Typically, tasks run in the same directory as the configuration file.

If you provide a --cwd option (but not a --workspace option), tasks will run in the directory provided by the --cwd option.

If you provide one or more --workspace options, --cwd is ignored and tasks are run in each of the selected workspace members.

NOTE: In configuration files, you can use the cwd or working_dir option to specify a working directory for a specific task and that option will be respected even when using --workspace or --cwd from the command line.

Task Keys

ds searches configuration files for tool-specific keys to find task definitions which should contain a mapping from task names to basic tasks or composite tasks.

Task Names

Task names are strings, that are usually short, lowercase, ASCII letters.
They can have a colon (:) in them, like py:build.
All leading and trailing whitespace in a task name is trimmed.
If the name is empty or starts with a hash (#) it is ignored. This allows formats like package.json to "comment out" tasks.
Don't start a name with a plus (+) because that indicates error suppression.
Don't start a name with a hyphen (-) because that can make the task look like a command-line argument.
Don't end a task name with a colon (:) because we use that to pass command-line arguments

Basic Task

A basic task is just a string of what should be executed in a shell using subprocess.run.

Supports most pdm-style and rye-style commands (except call)
Supports argument interpolation
Supports error suppression

# Example: Basic tasks become strings.

[scripts]
ls = "ls -lah"
no_error = "+exit 1" # See "Error Suppression"

# We also support `pdm`-style and `rye`-style commands.
# The following are all equivalent to `ls` above.
ls2 = { cmd = "ls -lah" }
ls3 = { cmd = ["ls", "-lah"] }
ls4 = { shell = "ls -lah" }

Composite Task

A composite task consists of a series of steps where each step is the name of another task or a shell command.

Supports pdm-style composite and rye-style chain
Supports argument interpolation
Supports error suppression

# Example: Composite tasks call other tasks or shell commands.

[scripts]
build = "touch build/$1"
clean = "rm -rf build"

# We also support `pdm`-style and `rye`-style composite commands.
# The following are all equivalent.
all = ["clean", "+mkdir build", "build foo", "build bar", "echo 'Done'"]

pdm-style = { composite = [
  "clean",
  "+mkdir build", # See: Error Suppression
  "build foo",
  "build bar",
  "echo 'Done'", # Composite tasks can call shell commands.
] }

rye-style = { chain = [
  "clean",
  "+mkdir build", # See: Error Suppression
  "build foo",
  "build bar",
  "echo 'Done'", # Composite tasks can call shell commands.
] }

Argument Interpolation

Tasks can include parameters like $1 and $2 to indicate that the task accepts arguments.

You can also use $@ for the "remaining" arguments (i.e. those you haven't yet interpolated yet).

You can also specify a default value for any argument using a bash-like syntax: ${1:-default value}.

Arguments from a composite task precede those from the command-line.

# Example: Argument interpolation lets you pass arguments to tasks.

[scripts]
# pass arguments, but supply defaults
test = "pytest ${@:-src test}"

# interpolate the first argument (required)
# and then interpolate the remaining arguments, if any
lint = "ruff check $1 ${@:-}"

# we also support the pdm-style {args} placeholder
test2 = "pytest {args:src test}"
lint2 = "ruff check {args}"

# pass an argument and re-use it
release = """\
  git commit -am "release: $1";\
  git tag $1;\
  git push;\
  git push --tags;\
  git checkout main;\
  git merge --no-ff --no-edit prod;\
  git push
"""

Command-line Arguments

When calling ds you can specify additional arguments to pass to commands.

ds build: foo -- build: bar

This would run the build task first with the argument foo and next with the argument bar.

A few things to note:

the colon (:) after the task name indicates the start of arguments
the double dash (--) indicates the end of arguments

If the first argument to the task starts with a hyphen, the colon can be omitted. If there are no more arguments, you can omit the double dash.

ds test -v

If you're not passing arguments, you can put tasks names next to each other:

ds clean test

Error Suppression

If a task starts with a plus sign (+), the plus sign is removed before the command is executed and the command will always produce an return code of 0 (i.e. it will always be considered to have completed successfully).

This is particularly useful in composite commands where you want subsequent steps to continue even if a particular step fails. For example:

# Example: Error suppression lets subsequent tasks continue after failure.

[scripts]
cspell = "cspell --gitignore '**/*.{py,txt,md,markdown}'"
format = "ruff format ."
die = "+exit 1" # returns error code of 0
die_hard = "exit 2" # returns an error code of 2 unless suppressed elsewhere
lint = ["+cspell", "format"] # format runs even if cspell finds misspellings

Error suppression works both in configuration files and on the command-line:

ds die_hard format
# => error after `die_hard`

ds +die_hard format
# => no error

Environment Variables

You can set environment variables on a per-task basis:

# Example: Environment variables can be set on tasks.

[scripts]
# set an environment variable
run = { cmd = "python -m src.server", env = { FLASK_PORT = "8080" } }

# use a file relative to the configuration file
run2 = { cmd = "python -m src.server", env-file = ".env" }

# composite tasks override environment variables
run3 = { composite = ["run"], env = { FLASK_PORT = "8081" } }

You can also set environment variables on the command-line, but the apply to all of the tasks:

ds -e FLASK_PORT=8080 run
ds --env-file .env run

Workspaces

Workspaces are a way of managing multiple sub-projects from a top-level. ds supports npm, rye, uv, and Cargo style workspaces.

When ds is called with the --workspace option, the configuration file must have one of the tool-specific workspace keys.

If no configuration file was provided with the --file option, search continues up the directory tree.

NOTE: pnpm has its own pnpm-workspace.yaml format which is not currently supported.

Workspace Members

The value corresponding to the workspace key should be a list of patterns that indicate which directories (relative to the configuration file) should be included as members. The following glob-like patterns are supported:

?: matches a single character (e.g., ca? matches car, cab, and cat)
[]: matches specific characters (e.g., ca[rb] matches car and cab)
*: matches multiple characters, but not / (e.g., members/* matches all the files in members, but not further down the tree)
**: matches multiple characters, including / (e.g., members/** matches all files in members and all sub-directories and all of their contents)

If you prefix any pattern with an exclamation point (!) then the rest of the pattern describes which files should not be matched.

Patterns are applied in order so subsequent patterns can include or exclude sub-directories as needed. We also support the excludes key (for uv and Cargo) which is applied after all the members.

# Example: workspace includes everything in `members` except `members/x`.

[workspace]
members = ["members/*", "!members/x"]

Workspace Tasks

To run a task across multiple workspaces, use the --workspace or -w options one or more times with a pattern that indicates where the tasks should run.

For example, consider a workspace with directories members/a, members/b, and members/x. The configuration above would match the first two directories and exclude the third.

The following are all equivalent and run test in both member/a and member/b:

ds --workspace '*' test   # special match that means "all workspaces"
ds -w '*' test            # short option
ds -w* test               # even shorter option
ds -w '*/a' -w '*/b' test # manually select multiple workspaces

Not Supported: Lifecycle Events

Some task runners (all the node ones, pdm, composer) support running additional pre- and post- tasks when you run a task. However, this obscures the relationship between tasks and can create surprises if you happen to have two tasks with unfortunate names (e.g., pend and prepend). ds does not plan to support this behavior (see #24).

As more explicit alternative is to use composite commands to clearly describe the relationship between a task and its pre- and post- tasks.

# Bad example: hidden assumption that `build` calls `prebuild` first.
[scripts]
prebuild = "echo 'prebuild'"
build = "echo 'build'"

# Good example: clear relationship between tasks.
[scripts]
prebuild = "echo 'prebuild'"
build = ["prebuild", "echo 'build'"]

Not Supported: `call` Tasks

Some task runners support special call tasks which get converted into language-specific calls. For example, both pdm and rye can call into python packages and composer can call into a PHP module call.

These types of tasks introduces a significant difference between what you write in the configuration file and what gets executed, so in the interest of reducing magic, ds does not currently support this behavior (see #32).

A more explicit alternative is to write out the call you intend:

# {"call": "pkg"} becomes:
python -m pkg

# {"call": "pkg:main('test')"} becomes:
python -c "import sys; from pkg import main as _1; sys.exit(main('test'))"

Inspirations

I've used several task runners, usually as part of build tools. Below is a list of tools used or read about when building ds.

1976: make (C) - Together with its descendants, make is one of the most popular build & task running tools. It is fairly easy to make syntax errors and the tab-based indent drives me up the wall.
2000: ant (Java) - an XML-based replacement for make. I actually liked using ant quite a bit until I stopped writing Java and didn't want to have java as a dependency for my python projects.
2008: gradle (Groovy/Kotlin) - Written for the jvm, I pretty much only use this for Android development. Can't say I love it.
2010: npm (JavaScript) - Being able to add a simple scripts field to package.json made it very easy to run dev scripts. Supports pre and post lifecycle tasks.
2010: pdm (Python) - Supports 4 different types of tasks including cmd, shell, call, and composite.
2012: composer (PHP) - Uses composer.json, similar to package.json. Supports pre- and post- task lifecycle for special tasks, command-line arguments, composite tasks, and other options.
2016: yarn (JavaScript) - An alternative to npm which also supports command-line arguments.
2016: pnpm (JavaScript) - Another alternative to npm which supports many more options including running tasks in parallel.
2016: just (Rust) - Defines tasks in a justfile, similar to make. Supports detecting cycles, running parallel, and many other options.
2016: cargo-run-script (Rust) - Uses Cargo.toml to configure scripts and supports argument substitution ($1, $2, etc.).
2017: cargo-make (Rust) - Very extensive port of make to Rust defining tasks in Makefile.toml.
2022: hatch (Python) - Defines environment-specific scripts with the ability to suppress errors, like make.
2023: bun (Zig) - An alternative to node and npm.
2023: rye (Rust) - Up-and-coming replacement for managing python projects.

License

MIT License

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 194 Commits
.github		.github
docs		docs
examples		examples
src		src
test		test
.cspell.json		.cspell.json
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE.md		LICENSE.md
README.md		README.md
dash-the-rabbit.png		dash-the-rabbit.png
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
uv.lock		uv.lock

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ds: run dev scripts

Example

Benefits

Limitations

Install

Usage

When should I make a dev script?

Where should I put my config?

How does `ds` find my config?

Where do tasks run?

Task Keys

Task Names

Basic Task

Composite Task

Argument Interpolation

Command-line Arguments

Error Suppression

Environment Variables

Workspaces

Workspace Members

Workspace Tasks

Not Supported: Lifecycle Events

Not Supported: `call` Tasks

Inspirations

License

About

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ds: run dev scripts

Example

Benefits

Limitations

Install

Usage

When should I make a dev script?

Where should I put my config?

How does ds find my config?

Where do tasks run?

Task Keys

Task Names

Basic Task

Composite Task

Argument Interpolation

Command-line Arguments

Error Suppression

Environment Variables

Workspaces

Workspace Members

Workspace Tasks

Not Supported: Lifecycle Events

Not Supported: call Tasks

Inspirations

License

About

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License

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Releases 8

Sponsor this project

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How does `ds` find my config?

Not Supported: `call` Tasks