Macro like keybindings

[TheColorRed]

When creating keyboard shortcuts, it would be nice if you could pass an array of commands (to execute like a macro) that would run the commands in that order.

So take this for example:

{
    "key": "ctrl+s",
    "command": [
        "editor.action.format",
        "editor.action.trimTrailingWhitespace",
        "workbench.action.files.save"
    ],
    "when": "editorTextFocus"
}

It would format the file, remove trailing white space then save the file.

[erichiller]

Abolutely what I was thinking! - another example (mine)

{
    "key": "winl+b",
    "command": [
        "workbench.action.tasks.terminate",
        "workbench.action.tasks.build"
    ]
}

[geddski]

love this idea

[amkgo]

Show any plain text in addition to commands will be great:

For example, using ctrl+; to move to the end of line and add ; and then move to the next line.

{
    "key": "ctrl+;",
    "commands": [
        "cursorEnd",
        ";",
        "editor.action.insertLineAfter"
    ],
    "when": "editorTextFocus"
}

[fbnlsr]

I'm surprised to see so few votes on this issue. I was looking for a way to bring up a terminal and hide the file explorer at the same time, since the integrated terminal doesn't occupy 100% width, and it seems vscode does'nt support multiple commands on a single keybindings yet. :(

Also, #6617 for ref.

[ThisIsManta]

Hi guys, I've just found out the extension macros which is exactly I was looking for. Hope this helps you overcome this limitation.

[dvf]

You probably want to allow arguments, for example when using the type command:

{
    "key": "ctrl+;",
    "commands": [
        {
             "command": "cursorEnd"
        },
        {
             "command": "type",
             "args": { "text": ";" }
        }
    ]
    "when": "editorTextFocus"
}

[drKnoxy]

If anyone on the core team would flag this with "help wanted" or "good first issue" i'd love to help out !

[weeksdev]

Ok so this isn't really answer to issue in vscode, but one work around i found was to use autohotkey.

[fbnlsr]

FYI, I know this is slightly off-topic but for anyone using their machine to code and as a gaming platform: autohotkey can trigger video games anti-cheat programs. If you don't want to get kicked/banned during your next session of battlefield, be sure to have autohotkey turned off before playing. :)

[ItsCubeTime]

Bind one key to multiple commands via user level tasks, no extensions required. Not a perfect way, but it works.

Theres no way of running commands like: editor.action.insertSnippet
in tasks right?

[usernamehw]

Created another extension that can run multiple commands:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=usernamehw.commands

{
    "key": "ctrl+s",
    "command": "commands.run",
	"args": [
        "editor.action.format",
        "editor.action.trimTrailingWhitespace",
        "workbench.action.files.save"
    ],
    "when": "editorTextFocus"
}

[ItsCubeTime]

Created another extension that can run multiple commands:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=usernamehw.commands

Looks great 😀

[bersbersbers]

Created another extension that can run multiple commands:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=usernamehw.commands

You mean, like https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ryuta46.multi-command? ;)

[usernamehw]

Yes, but like, better with more features.

[a-pav]

I think that @ liangjiancang's suggestion above about the ability to define "key" as an array is also valid. It can save us from copy-pasting for just a minor change.

[ulugbekna]

Hello everyone! 👋

VS Code team engineer here 🙂

Just wanted to let you know that we added a built-in command runCommands that can run multiple commands sequentially. This is not first-class support for macros as described in the feature request (this feature request remains open), but this should be quite a handy command, especially given it supports auto-completion/linting for command name and command argument names.

We encourage people to try it out and report issues/suggest improvements in new issues (there is now a GitHub issue label runCommands)

You can read more about the command here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/keybindings#_running-multiple-commands

Make sure you're on latest VS Code version - 1.77.

[EugeneDae]

@ulugbekna That's a great news, thanks so much!

[sandeepkambham08]

Tested and it works 😉
Thank you 👍

[jhuitema]

Thanks, this works great!

Would it be possible to add an argument to the runCommands action to optionally compress the commands into a single Undo action? If that is a big ask I can create a new issue for it.

For example, I am using a "Join Lines without inserting whitespace" key binding like so:

    {
        "key": "ctrl+shift+j",
        "command": "runCommands",
        "args": {
            "commands": [
                "editor.action.joinLines",
                "deleteRight"
            ]
        },
        "when": "textInputFocus"
    }

This works great but to undo it you need to Undo twice. Being able to only Undo once would be ideal.

[nikitavoloboev]

Hello everyone! 👋

VS Code team engineer here 🙂

Just wanted to let you know that we added a built-in command runCommands that can run multiple commands sequentially. This is not first-class support for macros as described in the feature request (this feature request remains open), but this should be quite a handy command, especially given it supports auto-completion/linting for command name and command argument names.

We encourage people to try it out and report issues/suggest improvements in new issues (there is now a GitHub issue label runCommands)

You can read more about the command here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/keybindings#_running-multiple-commands

Make sure you're on latest VS Code version - 1.77.

I just tried it with this:

  {
    "key": "cmd+shift+;",
    "command": "runCommands",
    "args": {
      "commands": [
        "breadcrumbs.focus",
        "cursorLeft"
      ]
    }
  },

And it failed. It did not do arrow left after breadcrumbs were focused.

[a-pav]

"commands": [
        "breadcrumbs.focus",
        "cursorLeft"
      ]

Instead of cursorLeft, you can use breadcrumbs.focusPrevious.

[ATXadam]

Having an issue with workbench.action.open*Settings* commands in runCommands. While it does work, it does throw an error, and prevents further execution of commands from running.

What I'm trying to accomplish is opening the settings.json files on keybind. If I run one of these commands as a root action for the keybind, it does work without issue.

Example Keybind:

[
    {
        "key": "ctrl+shift+/",
        "command": "runCommands",
        "args": {
            "commands": [
                "workbench.action.openApplicationSettingsJson",
                "workbench.action.openSettingsJson"
            ]
        }
    }
]

When executing the keybind, I get a VS Code alert:

Converting circular structure to JSON
    --> starting at object with constructor 'Y'
    |     property 'C' -> object with constructor 'Array'
    |     index 0 -> object with constructor 's'
    |     ...
    |     index 1 -> object with constructor 'a'
    --- property 'j' closes the circle
    */

As well as the following Output -> Window log:

2024-02-17 08:26:04.812 [error] Method not found: toJSON: CodeExpectedError: Method not found: toJSON
    at Object.call (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:42:5090)
    at C.s (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:40:5128)
    at C.q (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:40:4644)
    at $.value (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:40:4051)
    at h.y (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:35:1902)
    at h.z (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:35:1972)
    at h.fire (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:35:2188)
    at $.value (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:33:28530)
    at h.y (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:35:1902)
    at h.fire (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:35:2119)
    at $.value (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:33:28733)
    at h.y (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:35:1902)
    at h.fire (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:35:2119)
    at ge (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:33:31158)
    at IpcMainImpl.l (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:42:18908)
    at IpcMainImpl.emit (node:events:514:28)
    at WebContents.<anonymous> (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:79287)
    at WebContents.emit (node:events:514:28)

With VS Code Web, I do get a different alert: cyclic object value

With the following log in console:

TypeError: cyclic object value
    run commands.contribution.ts:106
    handler actions.ts:592
    handler commands.ts:98
    invokeFunction instantiationService.ts:68
    n commandService.ts:95
    executeCommand commandService.ts:60
    M abstractKeybindingService.ts:372
    J abstractKeybindingService.ts:225
    W keybindingService.ts:281
    d dom.ts:136
    a dom.ts:157
    W keybindingService.ts:273
    x keybindingService.ts:244
    ie event.ts:621
    x keybindingService.ts:244
    j instantiationService.ts:119
    t instantiationService.ts:245
    s instantiationService.ts:234
    r instantiationService.ts:223
    q instantiationService.ts:163
    m instantiationService.ts:147
    get instantiationService.ts:61
    ob layout.ts:306
    startup workbench.ts:155
    invokeFunction instantiationService.ts:68
    startup workbench.ts:146
    open web.main.ts:131
    m web.factory.ts:62
    main (index):9
    i (index):9
    i (index):9
    97 (index):9
    a (index):9
    <anonymous> (index):9
    <anonymous> (index):9
notificationsAlerts.ts:40:13

This is without any extensions running (fresh profile). Produced identical results with no extensions and a default profile:

• Windows_NT x64 10.0.22631
  • Installed App 1.86.2 (system setup) (Commit: 903b1e9)
  • Portable App 1.86.2 (Commit: 903b1e9)
• VS Code Web: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:122.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/122.0
  • Version: 1.86.2 (Commit: 903b1e9)
  • Version: 1.87.0-insider (Commit: 00124e9)

Also, it would be great (and enough to get me by) if there was a way to execute commands and continue regardless of failure? In my example, I may not have a workspace open, so if I opened Application -> Workspace -> User, and no workspace, user would also not open.

[vanowm]

Just wanted to let you know that we added a built-in command runCommands that can run multiple commands sequentially. This is not first-class support for macros as described in the feature request (this feature request remains open), but this should be quite a handy command, especially given it supports auto-completion/linting for command name and command argument names.

We encourage people to try it out and report issues/suggest improvements in new issues (there is now a GitHub issue label runCommands)

I'm confused, was it easier to implement completely new command, rather than check for type of value in existing command, and if it's a string execute it, if it's an array execute each item in the array?