A polished VS Code extension that provides a GUI for discovering and running NPM scripts with real-time output, ANSI color support, and monorepo awareness.
Features
Auto-discovery — Automatically finds scripts from all package.json files in your workspace, including nested packages (monorepos)
One-click run/stop — Run any script with a single click; stop running scripts instantly
Real-time output — View script output as it streams, with full ANSI color support
Smart environment tags — Scripts are automatically tagged based on their name, with both an environment (dev, staging, prod) and an action (build, test, lint, deploy, seed) where the name carries each — so ship:all:prod reads as prod · deploy
Production safeguards — Filter tabs group scripts by target environment, and any script tagged prod asks for confirmation — showing the exact command — before it runs
URL detection — Automatically detects URLs in script output (e.g. dev server addresses) and offers a quick-open button
Interactive stdin — Send input to running scripts directly from the UI
Filter scripts — Quickly filter scripts by name or command with the built-in search
Package manager detection — Automatically detects npm, yarn, or pnpm based on lock files, or set it manually
Persistent state — Output and panel state are preserved across VS Code restarts
Auto-refresh — Watches for package.json changes and refreshes the script list automatically
Usage
Open the Script Runner panel using any of these methods:
Method
Action
Status bar
Click ▶ Scripts at the bottom left
Command Palette
Script Runner: Open Script Runner
Keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+Shift+R (Cmd+Shift+R on macOS)
Editor title button
Click the icon when viewing a package.json
Explorer
Right-click any package.json → Open Script Runner
From the panel you can:
Run a script by clicking the play button on its card
Stop a running script with the stop button
Expand/collapse a card to show or hide its output
Filter scripts using the search bar in the toolbar
Send input to a running script via the input bar at the bottom of its output
Open detected URLs (like localhost dev servers) with a single click
Clear output using the trash icon on a script card
Refresh the script list with the refresh button in the toolbar
Extension Settings
Setting
Default
Description
scriptRunner.packageManager
auto
Package manager to use (auto, npm, yarn, pnpm). auto detects based on lock files.
scriptRunner.maxOutputLines
1000
Maximum number of output chunks to keep per script
scriptRunner.clearOutputOnRerun
true
Clear previous output when re-running a script
scriptRunner.scanNested
true
Scan for nested package.json files (monorepo support)
scriptRunner.showStatusBarItem
true
Show a Script Runner button in the status bar for one-click access
Requirements
VS Code 1.85.0 or later
A workspace containing at least one package.json with scripts
