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Cannot invoke task with underscore in method name #1055
Description
Version: 2.2.1
Use Case
Using the example tasks.py...
from invoke.tasks import task
@task
def show_help(c):
"""Show available tasks."""
print("Available tasks:")
@task
def showhelp(c):
"""Show available tasks."""
print("Available tasks:")Calling showhelp...
invoke showhelpprints
Available tasks:
however, calling 'show_help`...
invoke show_helpresults in
No idea what 'show_help' is!
Activity
OttoAndrey commentedon Dec 5, 2025
hi! You can see available tasks/commands by
and maybe you need call it like
jbbqqf commentedon May 24, 2026
Hi @dax-westerman — drive-by triage: I believe this is working as designed.
Invoke ships with
tasks.auto_dash_names: Trueas a default (invoke/config.py), which means a Python task namedshow_helpis exposed on the CLI asshow-help(dashes), notshow_help(underscores). So:The behavior is documented in
sites/docs/concepts/invoking-tasks.rstunder "Dashes vs underscores in flag names", and the toggle is described insites/docs/concepts/namespaces.rst(settasks.auto_dash_names: falseininvoke.yamlto opt out). @OttoAndrey already pointed this out in their reply.Probably safe to close. Happy to be corrected if there's a separate bug here I'm missing.
Drive-by triage from an outside contributor (data engineer GCP/Python, jbbqqf). Comment drafted with Claude assistance; evidence and conclusion are mine.