Running npm scripts in VS Code when package.json isn’t in the project root

You open a repository where there’s no package.json at the top level. The front end lives in ui/, a couple of tools in ui/tools/, a backend in another folder. You look for the NPM Scripts view in the Explorer, and it isn't there.

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That’s the situation in microsoft/vscode#119868, open since March 2021 with 33 👍 and 24 comments. The reporter’s tree:

project-folder
|-- backend1
|-- backend2
|-- static
\-- ui
    |-- src
    |-- tools
    |   |-- tool1/package.json
    |   \-- tool2/package.json
    \-- package.json

Their finding: the view doesn’t show up until they open one of the three package.json files. Then it lists all three and their scripts. Setting npm.autoDetect to "on" in user and workspace settings didn't change it.

Workarounds that work today

1. Open one of the nested package.json files. That's what the reporter found, and it makes the view appear.
2. Run the script in a terminal. cd ui && npm run dev always works.
3. Open the nested folder as the workspace. If you mostly work in ui/, File → Open Folder… on that folder makes it the root, and everything in the view is relative to it.
4. Define tasks. A .vscode/tasks.json with "options": { "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/ui" } gives each script a stable entry under Terminal → Run Task. It's manual work, one entry per script.

Related reports cover the monorepo side: a yarn command being used in a pnpm monorepo (#155555) and an install script appearing in every non-root package (#149924).

Listing nested scripts without a view

I maintain Slashi, a free VS Code extension that lists a project’s scripts in its popup (press Cmd/Ctrl /, then /p ). It doesn't use the NPM Scripts view; it scans the workspace itself:

• It looks for manifest files (package.json, Makefile, justfile, Cargo.toml, go.mod and more) anywhere in the workspace, skipping node_modules, dist, build, vendor and similar folders. It keeps the first 40 folders it finds.
• Each script is labeled with its folder and runs with that folder as the working directory.
• The package manager comes from the packageManager field, then the lockfile in the package's folder, then the one in the workspace root.

To check this against the reporter’s tree, I ran Slashi’s detection function on that exact structure. I added a pnpm-lock.yaml at the root, since the issue doesn't say which package manager they use, and made up scripts for each package:

/ui:dev        pnpm: dev — ui                   cwd=ui                 →  pnpm run dev
/ui:build      pnpm: build — ui                 cwd=ui                 →  pnpm run build
/ui:test       pnpm: test — ui                  cwd=ui                 →  pnpm run test
/tool1:generate pnpm: generate — ui/tools/tool1  cwd=ui/tools/tool1     →  pnpm run generate
/tool2:lint    pnpm: lint — ui/tools/tool2      cwd=ui/tools/tool2     →  pnpm run lint

Every package’s scripts are listed without opening any file, each runs in its own folder, and the root’s pnpm-lock.yaml decides the package manager. This is the function's output (spacing tidied) from a direct call with that tree, not a recording of the editor. The popup builds its list from the same function.

Limits

• It’s not the NPM Scripts view. There’s no tree, no debug button and no npm.autoDetect. If you want those, use the workarounds above.
• The scan is capped at 40 folders. A monorepo with more packages than that gets cut off, so some packages’ scripts won’t be listed.
• Package manager. A packageManager field in the package's package.json wins, then a lockfile in its folder, then one in the workspace root. If none of those exist, Slashi assumes npm.
• The detection is read-only. It never runs your scripts until you pick one.

Takeaway

If the NPM Scripts view is missing, open any nested package.json first. For repositories where you want every script from every package in one searchable list, a launcher that scans the whole workspace is a reasonable fit.

I’m the author of Slashi. It’s free and MIT-licensed: Marketplace · Open VSX · GitHub.