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Remote Taskfiles (#1317)

website/src/docs/experiments/remote-taskfiles.md

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Remote Taskfiles (#1317)

::: warning

All experimental features are subject to breaking changes and/or removal at any time. We strongly recommend that you do not use these features in a production environment. They are intended for testing and feedback only.

:::

::: info

To enable this experiment, set the environment variable: TASK_X_REMOTE_TASKFILES=1. Check out our guide to enabling experiments for more information.

:::

::: danger

Never run remote Taskfiles from sources that you do not trust.

:::

This experiment allows you to use Taskfiles which are stored in remote locations. This applies to both the root Taskfile (aka. Entrypoint) and also when including Taskfiles.

Task uses "nodes" to reference remote Taskfiles. There are a few different types of node which you can use:

::: code-group

text
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/go-task/task/main/website/src/public/Taskfile.yml
text
https://github.com/go-task/task.git//website/src/public/Taskfile.yml?ref=main
text
[email protected]/go-task/task.git//website/src/public/Taskfile.yml?ref=main

:::

Node Types

HTTP/HTTPS

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/go-task/task/main/website/src/public/Taskfile.yml

This is the most basic type of remote node and works by downloading the file from the specified URL. The file must be a valid Taskfile and can be of any name. If a file is not found at the specified URL, Task will append each of the supported file names in turn until it finds a valid file. If it still does not find a valid Taskfile, an error is returned.

Git over HTTP

https://github.com/go-task/task.git//website/src/public/Taskfile.yml?ref=main

This type of node works by downloading the file from a Git repository over HTTP/HTTPS. The first part of the URL is the base URL of the Git repository. This is the same URL that you would use to clone the repo over HTTP.

  • You can optionally add the path to the Taskfile in the repository by appending //<path> to the URL.
  • You can also optionally specify a branch or tag to use by appending ?ref=<ref> to the end of the URL. If you omit a reference, the default branch will be used.

Git over SSH

[email protected]/go-task/task.git//website/src/public/Taskfile.yml?ref=main

This type of node works by downloading the file from a Git repository over SSH. The first part of the URL is the user and base URL of the Git repository. This is the same URL that you would use to clone the repo over SSH.

To use Git over SSH, you need to make sure that your SSH agent has your private SSH keys added so that they can be used during authentication.

  • You can optionally add the path to the Taskfile in the repository by appending //<path> to the URL.
  • You can also optionally specify a branch or tag to use by appending ?ref=<ref> to the end of the URL. If you omit a reference, the default branch will be used.

Task has an example remote Taskfile in our repository that you can use for testing and that we will use throughout this document:

yaml
version: '3'

tasks:
  default:
    cmds:
      - task: hello

  hello:
    cmds:
      - echo "Hello Task!"

Specifying a remote entrypoint

By default, Task will look for one of the supported file names on your local filesystem. If you want to use a remote file instead, you can pass its URI into the --taskfile/-t flag just like you would to specify a different local file. For example:

::: code-group

shell
$ task --taskfile https://raw.githubusercontent.com/go-task/task/main/website/src/public/Taskfile.yml
task: [hello] echo "Hello Task!"
Hello Task!
shell
$ task --taskfile https://github.com/go-task/task.git//website/src/public/Taskfile.yml?ref=main
task: [hello] echo "Hello Task!"
Hello Task!
shell
$ task --taskfile [email protected]/go-task/task.git//website/src/public/Taskfile.yml?ref=main
task: [hello] echo "Hello Task!"
Hello Task!

:::

Including remote Taskfiles

Including a remote file works exactly the same way that including a local file does. You just need to replace the local path with a remote URI. Any tasks in the remote Taskfile will be available to run from your main Taskfile.

::: code-group

yaml
version: '3'

includes:
  my-remote-namespace: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/go-task/task/main/website/src/public/Taskfile.yml
yaml
version: '3'

includes:
  my-remote-namespace: https://github.com/go-task/task.git//website/src/public/Taskfile.yml?ref=main
yaml
version: '3'

includes:
  my-remote-namespace: [email protected]/go-task/task.git//website/src/public/Taskfile.yml?ref=main

:::

shell
$ task my-remote-namespace:hello
task: [hello] echo "Hello Task!"
Hello Task!

Authenticating using environment variables

The Taskfile location is processed by the templating system, so you can reference environment variables in your URL if you need to add authentication. For example:

yaml
version: '3'

includes:
  my-remote-namespace: https://{{.TOKEN}}@raw.githubusercontent.com/my-org/my-repo/main/Taskfile.yml

Security

Automatic checksums

Running commands from sources that you do not control is always a potential security risk. For this reason, we have added some automatic checks when using remote Taskfiles:

  1. When running a task from a remote Taskfile for the first time, Task will print a warning to the console asking you to check that you are sure that you trust the source of the Taskfile. If you do not accept the prompt, then Task will exit with code 104 (not trusted) and nothing will run. If you accept the prompt, the remote Taskfile will run and further calls to the remote Taskfile will not prompt you again.
  2. Whenever you run a remote Taskfile, Task will create and store a checksum of the file that you are running. If the checksum changes, then Task will print another warning to the console to inform you that the contents of the remote file has changed. If you do not accept the prompt, then Task will exit with code 104 (not trusted) and nothing will run. If you accept the prompt, the checksum will be updated and the remote Taskfile will run.

Sometimes you need to run Task in an environment that does not have an interactive terminal, so you are not able to accept a prompt. In these cases you are able to tell task to accept these prompts automatically by using the --yes flag or the --trust flag. The --trust flag allows you to specify trusted hosts for remote Taskfiles, while --yes applies to all prompts in Task. You can also configure trusted hosts in your taskrc configuration using remote.trusted-hosts. Before enabling automatic trust, you should:

  1. Be sure that you trust the source and contents of the remote Taskfile.
  2. Consider using a pinned version of the remote Taskfile (e.g. A link containing a commit hash) to prevent Task from automatically accepting a prompt that says a remote Taskfile has changed.

Manual checksum pinning

Alternatively, if you expect the contents of your remote files to be a constant value, you can pin the checksum of the included file instead:

yaml
version: '3'

includes:
  included:
    taskfile: https://taskfile.dev
    checksum: c153e97e0b3a998a7ed2e61064c6ddaddd0de0c525feefd6bba8569827d8efe9

This will disable the automatic checksum prompts discussed above. However, if the checksums do not match, Task will exit immediately with an error. When setting this up for the first time, you may not know the correct value of the checksum. There are a couple of ways you can obtain this:

  1. Add the include normally without the checksum key. The first time you run the included Taskfile, a .task/remote temporary directory is created. Find the correct set of files for your included Taskfile and open the file that ends with .checksum. You can copy the contents of this file and paste it into the checksum key of your include. This method is safest as it allows you to inspect the downloaded Taskfile before you pin it.
  2. Alternatively, add the include with a temporary random value in the checksum key. When you try to run the Taskfile, you will get an error that will report the incorrect expected checksum and the actual checksum. You can copy the actual checksum and replace your temporary random value.

TLS

Task currently supports both http and https URLs. However, the http requests will not execute by default unless you run the task with the --insecure flag. This is to protect you from accidentally running a remote Taskfile that is downloaded via an unencrypted connection. Sources that are not protected by TLS are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks and should be avoided unless you know what you are doing.

Custom Certificates

If your remote Taskfiles are hosted on a server that uses a custom CA certificate (e.g., a corporate internal server), you can specify the CA certificate using the --cacert flag:

shell
task --taskfile https://internal.example.com/Taskfile.yml --cacert /path/to/ca.crt

For servers that require client certificate authentication (mTLS), you can provide a client certificate and key:

shell
task --taskfile https://secure.example.com/Taskfile.yml \
  --cert /path/to/client.crt \
  --cert-key /path/to/client.key

::: warning

Encrypted private keys are not currently supported. If your key is encrypted, you must decrypt it first:

shell
openssl rsa -in encrypted.key -out decrypted.key

:::

These options can also be configured in the configuration file.

Caching & Running Offline

Whenever you run a remote Taskfile, the latest copy will be downloaded from the internet and cached locally. This cached file will be used for all future invocations of the Taskfile until the cache expires. Once it expires, Task will download the latest copy of the file and update the cache. By default, the cache is set to expire immediately. This means that Task will always fetch the latest version. However, the cache expiry duration can be modified by setting the --expiry flag.

If for any reason you lose access to the internet or you are running Task in offline mode (via the --offline flag or TASK_OFFLINE environment variable), Task will run the any available cached files even if they are expired. This means that you should never be stuck without the ability to run your tasks as long as you have downloaded a remote Taskfile at least once.

By default, Task will timeout requests to download remote files after 10 seconds and look for a cached copy instead. This timeout can be configured by setting the --timeout flag and specifying a duration. For example, --timeout 5s will set the timeout to 5 seconds.

By default, the cache is stored in the Task temp directory (.task). You can override the location of the cache by using the --remote-cache-dir flag, the remote.cache-dir option in your configuration file, or the TASK_REMOTE_DIR environment variable. This way, you can share the cache between different projects.

You can force Task to ignore the cache and download the latest version by using the --download flag.

You can use the --clear-cache flag to clear all cached remote files.

Configuration

This experiment adds a new remote section to the configuration file.

  • Type: object
  • Description: Remote configuration settings for handling remote Taskfiles
yaml
remote:
  insecure: false
  offline: false
  timeout: "30s"
  cache-expiry: "24h"
  cache-dir: ~/.task
  trusted-hosts:
    - github.com
    - gitlab.com
  cacert: ""
  cert: ""
  cert-key: ""

insecure

  • Type: boolean
  • Default: false
  • Description: Allow insecure connections when fetching remote Taskfiles
  • CLI equivalent: --insecure
  • Environment variable: TASK_REMOTE_INSECURE
yaml
remote:
  insecure: true

offline

  • Type: boolean
  • Default: false
  • Description: Work in offline mode, preventing remote Taskfile fetching
  • CLI equivalent: --offline
  • Environment variable: TASK_REMOTE_OFFLINE
yaml
remote:
  offline: true

timeout

  • Type: string
  • Default: 10s
  • Pattern: ^[0-9]+(ns|us|µs|ms|s|m|h)$
  • Description: Timeout duration for remote operations (e.g., '30s', '5m')
  • CLI equivalent: --timeout
  • Environment variable: TASK_REMOTE_TIMEOUT
yaml
remote:
  timeout: "1m"

cache-expiry

  • Type: string
  • Default: 0s (no cache)
  • Pattern: ^[0-9]+(ns|us|µs|ms|s|m|h)$
  • Description: Cache expiry duration for remote Taskfiles (e.g., '1h', '24h')
  • CLI equivalent: --expiry
  • Environment variable: TASK_REMOTE_CACHE_EXPIRY
yaml
remote:
  cache-expiry: "6h"

cache-dir

  • Type: string
  • Default: .task
  • Description: Directory where remote Taskfiles are cached. Can be an absolute path (e.g., /var/cache/task) or relative to the Taskfile directory.
  • CLI equivalent: --remote-cache-dir
  • Environment variable: TASK_REMOTE_CACHE_DIR
yaml
remote:
  cache-dir: ~/.task

trusted-hosts

  • Type: array of strings
  • Default: [] (empty list)
  • Description: List of trusted hosts for remote Taskfiles. Hosts in this list will not prompt for confirmation when downloading Taskfiles
  • CLI equivalent: --trusted-hosts
  • Environment variable: TASK_REMOTE_TRUSTED_HOSTS (comma-separated)
yaml
remote:
  trusted-hosts:
    - github.com
    - gitlab.com
    - raw.githubusercontent.com
    - example.com:8080

Hosts in the trusted hosts list will automatically be trusted without prompting for confirmation when they are first downloaded or when their checksums change. The host matching includes the port if specified in the URL. Use with caution and only add hosts you fully trust.

You can also specify trusted hosts via the command line:

shell
# Trust specific host for this execution
task --trusted-hosts github.com -t https://github.com/user/repo.git//Taskfile.yml

# Trust multiple hosts (comma-separated)
task --trusted-hosts github.com,gitlab.com -t https://github.com/user/repo.git//Taskfile.yml

# Trust a host with a specific port
task --trusted-hosts example.com:8080 -t https://example.com:8080/Taskfile.yml

cacert

  • Type: string
  • Default: ""
  • Description: Path to a custom CA certificate file for TLS verification
yaml
remote:
  cacert: "/path/to/ca.crt"

cert

  • Type: string
  • Default: ""
  • Description: Path to a client certificate file for mTLS authentication
yaml
remote:
  cert: "/path/to/client.crt"

cert-key

  • Type: string
  • Default: ""
  • Description: Path to the client certificate private key file
yaml
remote:
  cert-key: "/path/to/client.key"