ntask

A Python-native task runner with content-hash caching and DAG execution.

pip install ntask

Why

Your Makefile runs everything every time. Your Justfile has no dependency graph. Your tasks.py for Invoke is five years old, has no types, and you still have to write ctx.run. This is what a task runner looks like when you start over with caching, types, and a DAG.

Quickstart

A complete release pipeline in under 30 lines. Drop this into tasks.py at your project root:

from ntask import task, cached, shell

@task
@cached(inputs=["src/**/*.py"])
def lint():
    shell("ruff check src/")

@task
@cached(inputs=["src/**/*.py"])
def typecheck():
    shell("mypy src/")

@task
@cached(inputs=["src/**/*.py", "tests/**/*.py"])
def test(pattern: str = ""):
    shell(f"pytest -q {'-k ' + pattern if pattern else ''}")

@task
@cached(inputs=["src/**/*.py", "pyproject.toml"], outputs=["dist/"])
def build():
    shell("python -m build")

@task(deps=[lint, typecheck, test, build])
def release(version: str):
    """Run checks, build, tag, and publish to PyPI."""
    shell(f"git tag v{version} && git push --tags && twine upload dist/*")

The first time you cut a release, every step runs. -j runs independent tasks in parallel (global flags go before the task name):

$ ntask -j release --version=1.0.0
running lint
running typecheck
running test
running build
+ lint       (1.4s)
+ build      (2.3s)
+ typecheck  (3.2s)
+ test       (4.9s)
running release
+ release    (0.9s)

The second time, ntask hashes the inputs, sees nothing changed, and skips every cached task. It restores dist/ from its content-addressed store, so build never runs:

$ ntask -j release --version=1.0.1
o lint       cached (3a8f9c2d)
o typecheck  cached (b7c5f1e9)
o test       cached (9f2e8b14)
o build      cached (4dab8273)   <- dist/ restored, build did not run
running release
+ release    (0.9s)

Edit one file under tests/ and only test reruns. lint, typecheck and build don't read that file, so they stay cached. release isn't cached, so it always runs.

Cache keys also chain: a cached task's key includes the keys of the tasks it depends on, so a change upstream invalidates everything below it, even when the downstream task's own files haven't changed.

A few more commands:

ntask --list                       # list every task with its docstring
ntask test --pattern=auth          # type hints become CLI flags automatically
ntask --why test                   # explain the last cache hit or miss, item by item
ntask --graph release              # ASCII DAG (mermaid / dot also available)
ntask watch test                   # rerun on every src/ or tests/ change

Mermaid graph for docs

--graph-format mermaid prints a Mermaid block you can paste into a README or design doc. This is ntask's own DAG, straight from ntask --graph --graph-format mermaid:

graph TD
    install
    lint
    typecheck
    test
    check
    build
    release
    lint --> check
    typecheck --> check
    test --> check
    check --> release
    build --> release

Loading

--graph-format dot produces Graphviz output for the same data.

Team cache

Share cache hits across machines through S3, GCS, HTTP or a shared directory (NFS, a Docker volume):

# pyproject.toml
[tool.ntask.remote_cache]
type = "s3"
bucket = "my-team-cache"

pip install ntask[s3]
ntask check                        # the first run fills the cache; everyone else gets hits
ntask --offline check              # skip the remote for fast dev loops

For S3-compatible stores (MinIO, R2, B2), set endpoint_url. GCS and HTTP backends work the same way. The HTTP backend is plain GET/PUT/HEAD over stdlib urllib, so any server that accepts PUT will do.

When NOT to use @cached

@cached suits deterministic work driven by files: lint, typecheck, test, build. It's the wrong fit when the point of the task is its effect on the world. Skip it (or be deliberate about inputs= and env=) when the task:

• has external side effects: DB writes, HTTP requests, sending email, queue pushes. A cache hit means none of that happened on this run.
• changes shared state that other tasks read: caches, file ownership, the contents of .env, feature flags.
• depends on the clock or on randomness, so the same inputs can produce different output tomorrow.
• exists to check the world: smoke tests, integration probes, "is prod still healthy" checks. The whole point is to run again.

Use plain @task for these. Add parallel=False if the task must run alone (releases, migrations), and @group(...) to namespace related tasks.

Live DAG display

Run ntask check in an interactive terminal and a Textual TUI shows the DAG as a live tree, with each task's state and duration. Pipe the output, set tui = false in [tool.ntask], or pass --no-tui to get plain line-by-line output instead.

More features

• Exclusive tasks. @task(parallel=False) waits for every running task to finish, then runs alone. Use it for releases, migrations and anything else that changes shared state.
• Monorepos. Put @group("api") on a class and its task methods become api.<name>. Depend across groups with @task(deps=[Other.task, ...]) or a string name such as "web.test".
• Capture output. shell("git rev-parse HEAD", capture=True) returns a ShellResult with .stdout, .stderr, .returncode, .duration, .ok.
• Force a rerun. ntask --force test check runs check but skips the cache for test. ntask --no-cache ignores the cache entirely. ntask clean deletes the cache entries; ntask clean --all deletes the whole .ntask/ directory.

Examples

Six runnable, self-contained examples under examples/:

Example	Demonstrates
01-hello	Smallest possible cached task
02-python-lib	install / lint / typecheck / test / build
03-parallel	-j N fan-out and parallel=False barrier
04-watch	ntask watch rerun-on-change loop
05-remote-cache	local-fs remote backend shared between clones
06-monorepo	@group(...) namespacing and cross-group deps

cd into any of them and run ntask --list.

Features

feature	ntask	make	just	invoke	doit	poe
Typed Python tasks	yes	no	no	partial	no	partial
Content-hash input caching	yes	partial	no	no	partial	no
Transitive cache-key propagation	yes	no	no	no	partial	no
Remote cache (S3/GCS/HTTP)	yes	no	no	no	no	no
DAG dependency resolution	yes	yes	no	partial	yes	no
Type-hint to CLI args	yes	no	partial	partial	no	yes
Parallel DAG execution (-j)	yes	yes	no	no	yes	no
Live DAG TUI	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Windows first-class	yes	partial	yes	yes	yes	yes

When a task misses the cache, ntask names the file or env var that changed. ntask --why <task> prints the full breakdown.

Docs

• Technical handbook: every flag and config key
• Tutorial: replace your Makefile in 10 minutes
• Caching: the full contract
• Migrating from Make / just / Invoke / Poe
• Short API reference

Requirements: Python 3.11.4 or newer.

License

BSD-3-Clause. Copyright © 2026 Sean Nieuwoudt.