Custom Commands

Raid commands let you encode multi-step workflows — deploys, migrations, test runs — as named commands that every developer gets automatically. This example shows several patterns: simple scripts, variable passing between tasks, conditional steps, and parallel execution.

Simple command

A command that runs a deploy script with a confirmation gate:

profile.yaml

commands:
  - name: deploy
    usage: Deploy the API to staging
    tasks:
      - type: Confirm
        message: "Deploy API to staging?"
      - type: Shell
        cmd: ./scripts/deploy.sh staging
        path: ~/dev/api
      - type: Print
        message: "Deployed."
        color: green

raid deploy

---

Passing variables between tasks

Use Set to define a variable, then reference it in later tasks. Use Shell exports to capture dynamic values like git SHAs or generated tokens.

commands:
  - name: release
    usage: Tag and push a release
    tasks:
      - type: Prompt
        var: VERSION
        message: "Release version (e.g. 1.4.0)"
      - type: Shell
        cmd: |
          git tag v$VERSION
          git push origin v$VERSION
        path: ~/dev/api
      - type: Shell
        cmd: |
          export COMMIT=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
        path: ~/dev/api
      - type: Print
        message: "Released v$VERSION at $COMMIT"

raid release
# > Release version (e.g. 1.4.0): 1.4.0
# > Released v1.4.0 at 3fa9c12

---

Conditional tasks

Run tasks only on certain platforms or when a file or command exists:

commands:
  - name: setup-dev
    usage: First-time developer setup
    tasks:
      - type: Shell
        cmd: brew install postgresql
        condition:
          platform: darwin
          cmd: "! which psql"
      - type: Shell
        cmd: sudo apt-get install -y postgresql
        condition:
          platform: linux
          cmd: "! which psql"
      - type: Shell
        cmd: createdb api_dev
        condition:
          cmd: "! psql -lqt | grep api_dev"
      - type: Print
        message: "Dev database ready"

---

Parallel tasks

Mark adjacent tasks concurrent: true to run them in parallel. Raid waits for all concurrent tasks to finish before moving to the next step.

commands:
  - name: test-all
    usage: Run tests across all services in parallel
    tasks:
      - type: Print
        message: "Running tests..."
      - type: Shell
        cmd: go test ./...
        path: ~/dev/api
        concurrent: true
      - type: Shell
        cmd: npm test
        path: ~/dev/frontend
        concurrent: true
      - type: Shell
        cmd: pytest
        path: ~/dev/data-service
        concurrent: true
      - type: Print
        message: "All tests passed"
        color: green

raid test-all
# Running tests...
# [api, frontend, data-service running in parallel]
# All tests passed

---

Reusable task groups

Extract repeated sequences into a named group and reference them from multiple commands:

task_groups:
  pull-all:
    - type: Shell
      cmd: git pull
      path: ~/dev/api
      concurrent: true
    - type: Shell
      cmd: git pull
      path: ~/dev/frontend
      concurrent: true

commands:
  - name: sync
    usage: Pull all repos and reinstall dependencies
    tasks:
      - type: Group
        ref: pull-all
      - type: Shell
        cmd: npm install
        path: ~/dev/frontend

  - name: deploy
    usage: Pull latest and deploy
    tasks:
      - type: Group
        ref: pull-all
      - type: Shell
        cmd: ./scripts/deploy.sh

---

Per-repo commands

Commands can also live in individual repository raid.yaml files, scoped to that service. They are automatically available when the profile is loaded.

~/dev/api/raid.yaml

commands:
  - name: migrate
    usage: Run pending database migrations
    tasks:
      - type: Set
        var: ENV
        value: local
      - type: Confirm
        message: "Run migrations against $ENV?"
      - type: Shell
        cmd: go run ./cmd/migrate --env=$ENV

  - name: seed
    usage: Seed the database with test data
    tasks:
      - type: Shell
        cmd: go run ./cmd/seed
        condition:
          cmd: "psql $DATABASE_URL -c '\\dt' | grep -q users"

raid migrate
# > Run migrations against local? (y/N) y

raid seed