Getting Started

outdo is a task runner where tasks live in a typed TypeScript file — do.ts — at your repo root. It requires Bun Bun >= 1.4 and nothing else: zero runtime dependencies.

Install

project (recommended)

bun add -d @meslzy/outdo

global

bun add -g @meslzy/outdo

one-off

bunx @meslzy/outdo <task>

Why Bun-only?

outdo is built directly on Bun Shell ($), Bun.spawn, and Bun.Glob — the cross-platform, injection-safe primitives that make it fast and dependency-free. There is no Node fallback by design.

Scaffold

bunx outdo init

This creates a starter do.ts and adds .outdo/ (the cache directory) to your .gitignore:

import { defineTasks, task } from "@meslzy/outdo";

export default defineTasks({
	dev: {
		desc: "Start the dev server",
		persistent: true,
		run: async ({ $ }) => {
			await $`bun --watch src/index.ts`;
		},
	},
	build: {
		desc: "Build the project",
		inputs: ["src/**/*.ts"],
		outputs: ["dist/**"],
		run: async ({ $ }) => {
			await $`bun build src/index.ts --outdir dist`;
		},
	},
	test: {
		desc: "Run tests",
		deps: ["build"],
		run: async ({ $ }) => {
			await $`bun test`;
		},
	},
});

Run

outdo            # lists every task, grouped, with descriptions
outdo test       # runs build first (dependency), then test
outdo --dry test # shows the plan without running anything

Typo a task name and outdo suggests the fix:

$ outdo biuld
error Unknown task "biuld". Did you mean "build"? Run "outdo" to list tasks.

Typo a dependency name inside do.ts and it never even runs — TypeScript flags it in your editor with the same suggestion.

Where outdo fits

outdo replaces Makefile / justfile / a pile of package.json scripts as your task layer. Keep raw one-line commands in package.json scripts if you like the convention — outdo tasks can call bun run <script> and add the DAG, parallelism, env contracts, and caching on top.

Next: Why outdo? for an honest comparison, or Tasks & Dependencies to learn the API.