Tasks with input variables that run VSCode commands fail

[nortakales]

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

• VS Code Version: 1.100.3
• OS Version: Windows 11 Build 22631

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Set up tasks exactly like the "Terminate All Tasks" example mentioned here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/reference/variables-reference#_input-variables
2. Run the "Terminate All Tasks" task

Task setup looks like:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Terminate All Tasks",
      "command": "echo ${input:terminate}",
      "type": "shell",
      "problemMatcher": []
    }
  ],
  "inputs": [
    {
      "id": "terminate",
      "type": "command",
      "command": "workbench.action.tasks.terminate",
      "args": "terminateAll"
    }
  ]
}

Expected:

All tasks are terminated

Actual:

 *  Executing task in folder <redacted>: echo ${input:terminate} 

zsh:1: unrecognized modifier

 *  The terminal process "/usr/bin/zsh '-c', 'echo ${input:terminate}'" failed to launch (exit code: 1).

Note

I first noticed this back in April, mentioned here: #246854. That was resolved, so I guess it was unrelated. This one may be related: #246074

[vs-code-engineering]

Thanks for creating this issue! It looks like you may be using an old version of VS Code, the latest stable release is 1.101.0. Please try upgrading to the latest version and checking whether this issue remains.

Happy Coding!

[meganrogge]

@connor4312 do you know anything about this? I recall you tweaked something with variable substitution lately?

[connor4312]

The command workbench.action.tasks.terminate does not return anything, so the ${input:terminate} does not get interpolated. Imo this is working as-designed.

[nortakales]

This worked for many years and was broken sometime around April (maybe Feb?) 2025. If this really is working as intended now, how are we supposed to execute VSCode commands as part of tasks? This was the only documented way to do so.

Also, I did just try again on VSCode 1.101.0 and it does not work.

[nortakales]

Hold on... how can you just close this? This was working for years, and is a documented feature on https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/reference/variables-reference#_input-variables. At the very least can you provide documentation on how to invoke VSCode commands via Tasks?

[connor4312]

I think before maybe we just put in an empty string here...

fwiw the command does execute it's just that the resulting task fails because your shell tries to interpret the unmodified template syntax.

But this seems like a big workaround anyway, @meganrogge I wonder if we should have "command" type tasks to properly support this kind of thing?

[nortakales]

Ah, you know what... the task does seem to execute now. I think that part may have been fixed as part of one of the linked issues above (possibly even fixed in 1.101.0 which I just upgraded to). The task itself was not executing for a few months though. So in that sense... I am quite happy now.

That said, I guess do what you will with the unmodified template syntax. I'll take function over form.

[connor4312]

You could get around it by wrappingt the ${input} in single quotes which would prevent your shell from erroring out