`dependsOn` object form cannot reach a task behind a package that lacks it; the query can

[jasonkuhrt]

Problem

{ task, from } selects direct dependencies only, and the docs say recursion comes from each dependency task declaring its own entry. That chain breaks at any package that does not define the task, and every task must have a command, so a source-only package cannot relay.

app ──> ui (no generate) ──> icons (has generate)

app#build: dependsOn: [{ task: 'generate', from: 'dependencies' }]

vp run app#build on a clean checkout never runs icons#generate. vp run -t app#generate does, because the query bridges ui (skip-intermediate reconnection, task-query.md). The two mechanisms disagree about the same package graph.

Why it matters

In a monorepo whose packages are consumed as source, the only per-package preparation is code generation, and only some packages have it (25 of 121 for us). Every consumer task (test, lint, build) needs "generate in everything I transitively depend on". That is a cross-name dependency, so the query cannot express it (-t test would run test everywhere), and nested vp run -t generate is not deduplicated (#323). Today we name far-away producers by hand in a consumer that does not depend on them, keep a hand-written list of every producer for the workspace type build, and run vp run -r generate as a CI pre-pass.

Ask (either)

1. { task: 'generate', from: 'dependencies', transitive: true }: materialize edges to the task across transitive dependencies through from, bridging packages that lack it, which is the skip-intermediate reconnection the query already implements. task-query.md argues against stored topological edges because package selection is per query; an explicit entry does not vary per query, so that argument does not apply.
2. Allow a task with dependsOn and no command, so a source-only package can relay. This is Turborepo's documented Transit Nodes pattern (a task that "doesn't do anything because it doesn't match a script in any package.json"). Without it we need command: 'true' in about 100 packages.

Option 1 is the better end state: no relay tasks at all.

Versions: vite-plus 0.3.3; read against vite-task b11dbb9 (UserDependsOnEntry::Package is documented "Direct package dependency selection entry").

[jasonkuhrt]

Correction to ask 2 above. An empty command array already works as a no-op task on 0.3.3 (command: []; we use it for umbrella tasks), so a relay is expressible today and we do not need command: 'true'. What remains is that every source-only package has to declare one, and only a lint rule keeps a new package from silently breaking the chain.

Numbers from our workspace, dependencies field only: 22 packages define generate, and 22 packages have a transitive generator that the direct-only chain cannot reach today (masked by a vp run -r generate CI pre-pass and files already on disk). 28 source-only packages sit above a generator; 71 have none below them.

So ask 1 (a transitive object edge that bridges packages lacking the task) stands as written. Ask 2 reduces to documenting that command: [] is a supported no-op.