Quick compile builds for Elixir in VSCode

When you’re making changes in VSCode and you want a quick check to make sure the project compiles, you can either reach for a terminal and type mix compile or set up a quick build in VSCode and trigger it via a keyboard shortcut. I’ll show you how to set up the latter.

• Look for a .vscode folder in your project (or create one)
• Look for a tasks.json file in your .vscode directory or create that file
• Insert the following task configuration in that file:

{
 "version": "2.0.0",
 "tasks": [
  {
   "label": "mix: compile",
   "type": "shell",
   "command": "mix compile",
   "group": {
    "kind": "build",
    "isDefault": true
   },
   "problemMatcher": []
  }
 ]
}

• Note: If you already have a task in there, then just append the object in the tasks array above to your existing tasks array.
• Save the file. You shouldn’t need to restart VSCode for it to take effect, but try that if the next steps don’t work.
• Trigger the command using Terminal -> Run Build Task, or the keyboard shortcut attached to that (mine is Shift + CMD + B, on Mac).
• You should then see a terminal window pop up in your editor with text similar to the following (with “tictactoe” being whatever your app is named, of course):

Now, anytime you need a quick sanity check that your code still compiles and doesn’t have any big errors, trigger that build task using your keyboard shortcut. It should speed up your development cycle a touch.