Label — override the display name

label: changes how a task is shown — in logs, in --list, in the prefix of its cmd output. It does not change how the task is called; rite <task-name> still uses the key under tasks:.

Basics

version: '3'

tasks:
  foo:
    label: "build & sign"
    cmds:
      - echo "hi"

• rite foo still runs it.
• The log line reads [build & sign] echo "hi" instead of [foo] echo "hi".
• rite --list shows build & sign as the task's display name.

Templated labels

label: is a Go template, evaluated against the task's variables. Handy in for-loops and matrix runs where each iteration needs a distinct label:

tasks:
  deploy:
    cmds:
      - for: [staging, prod]
        task: deploy-one
        vars:
          ENV: '${ITEM}'

  deploy-one:
    label: "deploy → {{.ENV}}"
    cmds:
      - ./deploy.sh ${ENV}

Output prefixes each command with [deploy → staging] and [deploy → prod], so interleaved concurrent output stays readable.

When to reach for it

• Matrix runs. Distinguish build (linux/amd64) from build (darwin/arm64) in output.
• Aesthetic task names. The key under tasks: needs to be a valid YAML identifier; the label doesn't.
• Third-party Ritefiles. Include someone else's file but rename their tasks in your own output.

Differences from go-task

Identical to upstream — label: is one of the unaffected-by-first-in-wins features. The template is rendered against the final merged variable set for the task, so shell env and CLI args flow through as expected.