Makestro 🎶

Make + Maestro — the conductor of your Makefiles. From Italian/Spanish maestro (master, conductor). Like a maestro orchestrates a symphony, Makestro orchestrates your build targets.

A language-agnostic VS Code extension that discovers and runs Makefile targets from a clean sidebar UI. Parses target descriptions, groups by sections, supports pinning favorites, quick-pick fuzzy search, and integrates with VS Code's built-in task runner.

Built for engineers who live in Makefiles but don't want to keep switching to the terminal.

Features

• Sidebar tree view with activity bar icon — browse all targets at a glance
• Explorer integration — Make Targets panel in the VS Code Explorer tab
• Section grouping via ### Section Name comments in your Makefile
• Target descriptions via ## Description comments above targets
• .PHONY awareness — icons differentiate phony vs file-based targets
• Quick Run (Alt+M R) — fuzzy-search picker across all targets
• Re-run Last (Alt+M L) — instantly repeat the last executed target
• Run with Arguments — prompt for variable overrides like VERBOSE=1
• Pin / Unpin targets via right-click context menu
• Go to Target — jump to the exact line in the Makefile
• Multi-Makefile support — auto-discovers Makefiles, or select one manually
• File watcher — auto-refreshes when your Makefile changes
• VS Code Task Provider — targets appear in Tasks: Run Task
• Diffchestrator integration — auto-discovers Makefiles from the selected repo

Makefile Conventions

Makestro reads structured comments to build a navigable sidebar:

### Build                        # Section header (groups targets below it)
## Compile the project           # Target description (shown in sidebar)
build:
    go build ./...

## Run unit tests
test: build
    go test ./...

### Docker
## Build the container image
docker-build:
    docker build -t myapp .

.PHONY: build test docker-build

Prefix	Purpose
###	Section header — groups subsequent targets
##	Target description — displayed next to the target name
.PHONY	Marks targets as phony (different icon in sidebar)

Both prefixes are configurable via settings.

Keybindings

Shortcut	Command
Alt+M R	Quick Run (fuzzy picker)
Alt+M L	Re-run Last Target
Alt+M S	Stop Running Target
Alt+M 1..9, 0	Run pinned target by slot (1st through 10th)

Commands

All commands are available via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P):

Command	Description
Makestro: Quick Run...	Fuzzy-search and run a target
Makestro: Re-run Last Target	Repeat the last executed target
Makestro: Stop Running Target	Kill the active terminal
Makestro: Refresh Targets	Re-parse the Makefile
Makestro: Open Makefile	Open the active Makefile in the editor
Makestro: Select Makefile...	Choose which Makefile to use
Makestro: Run Target with Arguments...	Run with extra args/variables

Diffchestrator Integration

When Diffchestrator is installed, Makestro automatically discovers Makefiles from the currently selected repo — even if that repo is outside your workspace.

• Select a repo in Diffchestrator and Makestro shows its targets
• Switch repos and Makestro auto-refreshes
• Works in both the Makestro sidebar and the Explorer panel
• No configuration needed — the integration is automatic and optional

Makefile resolution priority:

1. makestro.defaultMakefile setting (explicit path always wins)
2. Diffchestrator's selected repo
3. Workspace folder auto-discovery

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
makestro.makeCommand	make	Path to the make binary
makestro.scanDepth	3	Max directory depth to scan for Makefiles
makestro.excludePatterns	[node_modules, .git, ...]	Glob patterns to skip when scanning
makestro.descriptionCommentPrefix	##	Prefix for target descriptions
makestro.sectionCommentPrefix	###	Prefix for section headers
makestro.autoRefresh	true	Auto-refresh on Makefile changes
makestro.pinnedTargets	[]	Pinned target names (managed via UI)
makestro.showPhonyOnly	false	Only show .PHONY targets
makestro.runInIntegratedTerminal	true	Run in terminal (false = output channel)
makestro.defaultMakefile	""	Explicit Makefile path (empty = auto-detect)

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Watch mode (recompile on changes)
make watch

# Lint
make lint

# Package .vsix
make package

# Release (auto-bump from conventional commits)
make release

Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host.

Release

Releases are automated via GitHub Actions. The workflow triggers on v* tags and:

1. Compiles and packages two .vsix files (VS Code Marketplace + Open VSX)
2. Generates SHA256 checksums and signs them with Ed25519
3. Creates a GitHub Release with build provenance attestation
4. Publishes to Open VSX (Marketplace publishing available when configured)

# Auto-detect bump, build, tag
make release

# Push code + tag to trigger CI
git push && git push origin v<version>

Verify Release Integrity

# Verify build provenance
gh attestation verify makestro-*.vsix --repo Andrevops/Makestro

# Verify checksum signature
sha256sum -c checksums.txt
openssl pkeyutl -verify -pubin -inkey public_key.pem -rawin \
  -in checksums.txt -sigfile <(xxd -r -p checksums.txt.sig)

License

MIT