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ntrogh merged 3 commits into from
Mar 24, 2026
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docs: add instancePolicy to task RunOptions documentation #9590

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docs: add instancePolicy to task RunOptions documentation
jacky-ctrl Mar 20, 2026
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ntrogh Mar 24, 2026
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Merge branch 'main' into patch-1
jacky-ctrl Mar 24, 2026
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8 changes: 7 additions & 1 deletion docs/debugtest/tasks.md
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Expand Up @@ -373,7 +373,13 @@ You can specify a task's run behaviors using the `runOptions` property:
* `default` - The task will only be run when executed through the **Run Task** command.
* `folderOpen` - The task will be run when the containing folder is opened. The first time you open a folder that contains a task with `folderOpen`, you will be asked if you want to allow tasks to run automatically in that folder. You can change your decision later using the **Manage Automatic Tasks** command and selecting between **Allow Automatic Tasks** and **Disallow Automatic Tasks**.
* **instanceLimit** - The number of instances of the task that are allowed to run simultaneously. The default value is `1`.

* **instancePolicy** - Determines what happens when a task has reached its `instanceLimit`. Can be set to:
* `prompt` - Prompt the user which instance to terminate (default).
* `silent` - Don't start a new instance (silent).
* `terminateNewest` - Terminate the newest running instance.
* `terminateOldest` - Terminate the oldest running instance.
* `warn` - Don't start a new instance (show warning).

## Customizing auto-detected tasks

As mentioned above, you can customize auto-detected tasks in the `tasks.json` file. You usually do so to modify presentation properties or to attach a problem matcher to scan the task's output for errors and warnings. You can customize a task directly from the **Run Task** list by pressing the gear icon to the right to insert the corresponding task reference into the `tasks.json` file. Assume you have the following Gulp file to lint JavaScript files using ESLint (the file is taken from [https://github.com/adametry/gulp-eslint](https://github.com/adametry/gulp-eslint)):
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