How to control the order of tasks shown by invoke --list ?

[zapta]

Is there a way to control the list of tasks shown by invoke --list, e.g. by preserving the order in tasks.py?

They seems to be sorted alphabetically which spread apart tasks that are semantically related.

[kokoc30]

The built-in text listing currently sorts task names; it doesn't preserve their order in tasks.py. Both flat and nested listings use Program._make_pairs(), which explicitly iterates over sorted(coll.tasks.items()) and sorted(coll.collections.items()). Changing the insertion order when constructing a Collection therefore won't change that display order. See the listing implementation.

For keeping semantically related tasks together, use named subcollections and the nested listing format. For example, after defining your existing decorated task functions:

from invoke import Collection

ns = Collection(
    docs=Collection(build=docs_build, check=docs_check),
    package=Collection(build=package_build, publish=package_publish),
)

Here, docs_build, docs_check, package_build and package_publish stand for your existing @task objects. Then list them with:

invoke --list --list-format=nested

Or focus the listing on one group:

invoke --list docs

You invoke the tasks as invoke docs.build, invoke package.build, etc. Tasks within each group are still alphabetically sorted, but unrelated groups no longer get interleaved.

This provides grouping rather than an arbitrary declaration-order setting. The documented listing options select a format, subtree and depth; they don't include a custom sort order.

References: constructing and nesting namespaces, --list-format, and --list.