Task

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Watch mode ​

Use --watch (or -w) to keep a task running and rerun it when its source files change. For a Go project:

yaml
version: '3'

tasks:
  build:
    sources:
      - '**/*.go'
      - go.mod
      - go.sum
    cmds:
      - go build ./...

Run task --watch build, edit a Go file, and save it to trigger another build. Press Ctrl+C to stop watching.

Watch mode detects changes; up-to-date checks decide whether the task's commands need to run. Both use the same sources.

Enable watching by default ​

Set watch: true on a task if its normal CLI use should start a watcher:

yaml
version: '3'

tasks:
  build:
    watch: true
    sources: ['**/*.go']
    cmds:
      - go build ./...

Now task build starts watch mode. The watch setting applies when the task is called from the CLI; calls from another task through cmds or deps do not start a watcher.

Combine rapid changes ​

The default watch interval is 100 milliseconds. Increase it if saving several files produces duplicate events:

shell
task --watch --interval=500ms build

You can also set interval: '500ms' at the root of the Taskfile. The interval groups events close together so that Task reruns the task once for the batch.

Watch long-running apps ​

Builds and checks finish after each run. Servers keep running and need to stop before a replacement can take over their port.

WARNING

There is a known issue where watch mode may leave child processes running. Prefer building and running the executable directly over go run, which starts another process.

For applications that need dedicated live-reload behavior, consider tools such as Air. Report Task-specific problems with a small reproducer in the issue tracker.