Tasks

A task is a named command or script that runs with your project's tools and environment variables. Use tasks for builds, tests, linters, development servers, and other commands you want teammates and CI to run consistently.

Run your first task

Create this file in a project directory:

mise.toml

[tasks.hello]
description = "Check that task execution works"
run = "echo hello from mise"

mise run hello
# hello from mise

Shell activation is not required. mise loads the configuration for the task and, by default, installs any missing configured tools before starting it. Use mise tasks ls to list tasks and mise tasks info hello to inspect one.

Choose a task format

Format	Use it when	Configuration
TOML tasks	Commands are short or mostly configure dependencies and options.	[tasks.<name>] in mise.toml
File tasks	A script benefits from its language's editor support and lint tools.	A script in mise-tasks/ or another task directory
Task templates	Several tasks share configuration.	[task_templates.<name>], selected with extends

The formats use the same task runner. Start with TOML and move longer scripts into files as they grow.

Tasks in mise.toml files

A dependency-only task can group other tasks. Prerequisites may run in parallel; their order in depends does not establish a sequence:

mise.toml

[tasks.check]
depends = ["format", "test"]

[tasks.format]
run = "echo checking formatting"

[tasks.test]
run = "echo running tests"

mise run check runs both prerequisites. Replace the echo commands with your project's checks. Use a run array when one step must finish before the next starts.

File Tasks

Save a script as mise-tasks/hello:

mise-tasks/hello

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#MISE description="Check that task execution works"
echo "hello from a file task"

On macOS and Linux, make it executable with chmod +x mise-tasks/hello, then run mise run hello. This is an alternative to the TOML task above. The file task guide explains Windows detection and interpreters.

Build a task workflow

• Running tasks: arguments, wildcards, parallelism, and execution order.
• Task arguments: define a CLI with validation, help, and completions.
• Task configuration: find a specific property and its scope.
• Task caching: choose freshness checks or cached outputs and declare their inputs.
• Monorepo tasks: run tasks across configured project roots.
• Task architecture: understand discovery, scheduling, and failures.

Environment variables passed to tasks

The following environment variables are passed to the task:

• MISE_ORIGINAL_CWD: The original working directory from where the task was run.
• MISE_CONFIG_ROOT: The directory containing the mise.toml file where the task was defined. If the config path is something like ~/src/myproj/.config/mise.toml, this is ~/src/myproj.
• MISE_PROJECT_ROOT: The root of the project that defines the task. For monorepo subproject tasks this is the subproject's directory and is stable regardless of the directory the task is invoked from.
• MISE_MONOREPO_ROOT: The root of the monorepo (the directory containing the config with monorepo_root = true). Only set inside a monorepo.
• MISE_TASK_NAME: The name of the task being run.
• MISE_TASK_COLOR: The ANSI sequence that starts the task's prefix color and emphasis. This is set to an empty string when colors are disabled or the selected output mode does not display a task prefix. Add an ANSI reset after the text, for example printf '%smessage\033[0m\n' "$MISE_TASK_COLOR". The replacing output style also provides the value when it uses its text fallback. The variable describes the task label style and does not mean that every line is automatically prefixed.
• MISE_TASK_DIR: The directory containing the task script.
• MISE_TASK_FILE: The full path to the task script.