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.

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "type": "shell",
    "command": "go",
    "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "install",
            "args": ["install", "-v", "./..."],
            "group": "build",
        },
        {
            "label": "run",
            "args": ["run", "${file}"],
            "group": "build",
        },
        {
            "label": "test",
            "args": ["test", "-v", "./..."],
            "group": "test",
        },
    ],
}

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):

{
    "label": "MyTestFunction",
    "args": [ "test", "./...", "-test.run", "MyTestFunction"]
}

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

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "install",
            "command": "go",
            "args": ["install", "-v", "./..."],
            "group": "build",
            "type": "shell",
        },
        {
            "label": "run",
            "command": "go",
            "args": ["run", "${file}"],
            "group": "build",
            "type": "shell",
        },
        {
            "label": "test",
            "command": "go",
            "args": ["test", "-v", "./..."],
            "group": "test",
            "type": "shell",
        },
    ],
}

Learn more by reading the VS Code Tasks documentation.