Fail Fast for Visual Studio

Download this extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace or grab the latest CI build from VSIX Gallery.

Stop waiting on builds that have already failed.

Fail Fast stops a solution build as soon as the first project fails. Instead of waiting for the rest of the projects to continue compiling, the extension cancels the build immediately and writes a short explanation to the Build output window.

This extension was inspired by Einar Egilsson's Stop on first build error.

The problem

You make a small change, hit build, and one project breaks early on. But Visual Studio keeps going - compiling dozens of downstream projects that depend on the broken one and can never succeed. You sit and wait, watching the output scroll, just to be told what you already knew seconds ago: the build failed.

In a large solution, that wasted wait happens on every failed build, dozens of times a day. It adds up fast.

Fail Fast gives you that time back. The moment the first project fails, the build stops. You see the error, fix it, and build again - no waiting around.

Why use it?

• Shorter feedback loops - stop spending time on projects that no longer matter after the first failure
• Less output noise - focus on the first real error instead of scrolling through follow-up failures
• Built into Visual Studio - toggle the behavior from the Build menu when you need it

Real-world example

To see how much time this saves, I introduced a single syntax error in the OrchardCore.Abstractions project of the large OrchardCore solution and built it three times with Fail Fast enabled and three times with it disabled.

Because OrchardCore.Abstractions sits near the bottom of the dependency graph, almost every other project depends on it. Without Fail Fast, Visual Studio keeps churning through projects that can never succeed. With Fail Fast enabled, the build stops the moment the first project fails - roughly 7.6x faster and about 33 seconds saved per build in this case.

In a tight edit-build-fix loop, that difference adds up to minutes saved every hour. If you trigger 30 failed builds a day, that's around 15 minutes reclaimed daily - on a single solution.

Getting started

1. Install the extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
2. Open a solution with multiple projects.
3. Use Build > Stop Build on First Error to enable or disable the feature.
4. Start a build as usual.
5. When a project fails, Fail Fast cancels the remaining build immediately.

What it does

• Watches solution builds in Visual Studio
• Cancels the build after the first failed project
• Only affects Build and Rebuild - Clean operations are never cancelled
• Writes a FailFast: message to the Build output pane when cancellation happens
• Remembers whether the feature is enabled

Notes

• Clean is never interrupted. Fail Fast only reacts to build and rebuild operations, so a project that fails to clean (for example, when a COM unregistration step fails) will not cancel the clean of the other projects.
• The command is only shown when a solution with multiple projects is open.
• This extension targets Visual Studio 2022 on both amd64 and arm64.
• CI builds are available on VSIX Gallery, and publishing is handled by the Build workflow.

FAQ

Does it slow down successful builds?

No. Fail Fast only acts when a project fails. A build that succeeds runs exactly as it normally would.

Does it interrupt Clean operations?

No. Only Build and Rebuild are cancelled on failure. A project that fails to clean (for example, a failed COM unregistration step) never cancels the clean of the other projects.

Is the setting global or per-solution?

The enabled/disabled state is remembered globally and applies across solutions. Toggle it any time from Build > Stop Build on First Error.

How do I turn it off temporarily?

Use the Build menu to toggle it off, run your build, and toggle it back on when you're done. No restart required.

Why don't I see the command?

The command only appears when a solution with multiple projects is open, since fail-fast behavior only matters for multi-project builds.

Which versions of Visual Studio are supported?

Visual Studio 2022 (and newer) on both amd64 and arm64.

How can I help?

If you enjoy using the extension, please give it a rating on the Visual Studio Marketplace.

If you run into a bug or have an idea for an improvement, open an issue in the GitHub repo.

Pull requests are welcome.