Visual Studio Code keybindings - Running two or more commands with one shortcut

Question

I have the following keybinding in VS Code which toggles the position of the cursor between the active document and built-in terminal:

  // Toggle between terminal and editor focus
{
    "key": "oem_8",
    "command": "workbench.action.terminal.focus"
},
{
    "key": "oem_8",
    "command": "workbench.action.focusActiveEditorGroup",
    "when": "terminalFocus"
}

Before i click the shortcut key to move the cursor to the terminal, i first have to save the active file.

I would therefore like to run the file saving command, which after searching on google i believe is workbench.action.files.save

How would i do this? I have tried adding the above code snippet at the end of the "command" line but it has not worked.

Answer 1

Update: released for vscode v1.77, more at run multiple commands like a macro.

You are able to do this:

{
  "command": "runCommands",
  "key": "alt+r", // whatever keybinding
  "args": {
    "commands": [
      // commands to run in sequence
      "workbench.action.files.save",
      "workbench.action.terminal.focus",
      // or a command with args
      {
        "command": "workbench.action.terminal.sendSequence",
        "args": {
          "text": "npm run lint\r"
        }
      }

    ]
  }
}

The command runCommands is built-in, so no extension is necessary for your use case. But see the link above, some use cases might require a macro extension.

---

Previous answer:

You would need a macro extension to run multiple commands from one keybinding.

I now use multi-command and there are other macro extensions now.

You can use this keybinding (in your keybindings.json) with the multi-command extension - no need for anything in settings.json:

{
  "key": "oem_8", // or whatever keybinding you wish
  "command": "extension.multiCommand.execute",
  "args": {
    "sequence": [
      "workbench.action.files.save",
      "workbench.action.terminal.focus"
    ]
  },
  "when": "editorTextFocus" // if you want this, you probably do
}

If you have more complicated macros you can still build them in your settings.json if you wish.