Can I open a folder in VS Code via the CLI WITH a command to be run on the intergrated terminal?

Question

When I open a folder from my native terminal, with code ./workspace I'd like to add parameters to tell that it should straight-up run a specific command on an integrated terminal inside VS Code itself.

Like code ./workspace/ --npm build or code ./workspace/ && code windowindex=0 --t --npm build?

Answer 1

The VS Code CLI does not support this AFAIK.

My current workaround is to use code to open a workspace normally, then use extensions that trigger on VS Code startup (when the window opens) to create my terminals and runs commands on them.

There are a couple of these extensions, but personally I use Terminals Manager.

1. Create and save a workspace (ex. myapp.code-workspace)

2. On your workspace, create a .vscode/terminals.json file

   

3. Define your terminals in the terminals.json file (refer to the extension's page for the syntax). For example, let's say I want to have 1 terminal that will auto-run npm run start and 1 terminal that does git fetch:

   {
       "autorun": true,
       "terminals": [
           {
               "name": "NPM",
               "description": "For NPM commands",
               "focus": true,
               "commands": [
                   "cd myapp",
                   "npm run start"
               ]
           },
           {
               "name": "GIT",
               "description": "For GIT commands",
               "focus": false,
               "command": "git fetch -v"
           }
       ]
   }
   

4. When you do code myapp.code-workspace that should open VS Code and open the defined terminals (with the focus on the terminal with focus: true:

   

I like this better even if there's a code --option to do this, because if I open VS Code "manually" (i.e. by clicking its icon from the dock), then it will also do the same thing. I won't need a separate config/setup.