diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 35959d2..d84f23d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -178,3 +178,5 @@ docs/public
 /tests/.viv-cache
 /scripts/tomli
 /scripts/packaging
+
+swydd
diff --git a/noxfile.py b/noxfile.py
index 5b7a81d..6bc5a5a 100644
--- a/noxfile.py
+++ b/noxfile.py
@@ -50,11 +50,6 @@ def docs(session):
         session.run("sphinx-build", "docs", "site")
 
 
-@nox.session
-def release(session):
-    session.run("./scripts/release.py", external=True)
-
-
 @nox.session(python=["3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11"])
 def test(session):
     pdm_install(session, "test")
diff --git a/task b/task
deleted file mode 100755
index 4c07790..0000000
--- a/task
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-
-# VERSION = $(git describe --tags --always --dirty=-dev | sed 's/^v//g')
-
-function task:venv {
-	: "setup up pdm venv"
-	pdm install
-}
-
-function task:dev-install {
-  : "symlink development version"
-  mkdir -p ~/.local/share/viv
-  mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
-  ln -sf "$(pwd)/src/viv/viv.py" ~/.local/share/viv/viv.py
-  ln -sf ~/.local/share/viv/viv.py ~/.local/bin/viv
-}
-
-function task:_black {
-	: "generate black example shim"
-	rm -f examples/black
-	viv shim black -y -s -f -o examples/black
-}
-
-function task:clean {
-	: "clean build artifacts"
-	rm -rf build dist
-}
-
-function task:examples {
-	: "run examples to generate vivenvs"
-	examples="cli sys_path exe_specific frozen_import named_env scrape"
-	for f in $examples; do
-		python "examples/$f.py"
-	done
-}
-
-function task:_help-logo {
-	FORCE_COLOR=1 viv --help | yartsu -t 'viv --help' -w 70 -o assets/viv-help.svg
-}
-
-# ---- do-task boilerplate ----
-function task:help { : "Show this help"; echo "do:";w=$(("$(compgen -A function | wc -L)" - 3));while read -r name; do [[ ! $name =~ ^task:_ ]] && [[ $name =~ ^task: ]] && paste <(printf '\033[1;32m%*s\033[0m\n' "$w" "${name#task:}") <(type "$name" | sed -nEe 's/^[[:space:]]*: ?"(.*)";/\1/p'); done < <(compgen -A function); }
-while read -r name; do [[ $name == "task:$1" ]] && { shift; task="$name"; }; done < <(compgen -A function)
-[[ -n "$1" && -z "$task" ]] && printf "\033[1;31m%s\033\0[m is not a task\n" "$1"
-"${task:-task:help}" "$@" && exit "$?"
diff --git a/tasks.py b/tasks.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..04f926e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tasks.py
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# # https://github.com/daylinmorgan/swydd?tab=readme-ov-file#automagic-snippet
+# fmt: off
+if not (src := __import__("pathlib").Path(__file__).parent / "swydd/__init__.py").is_file(): # noqa
+    try: __import__("swydd") # noqa
+    except ImportError:
+        import sys; from urllib.request import urlopen; from urllib.error import URLError # noqa
+        try: r = urlopen("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/daylinmorgan/swydd/main/src/swydd/__init__.py") # noqa
+        except URLError as e: sys.exit(f"error fetching swydd: {e}\n") # noqa
+        src.parent.mkdir(exists_ok=True); src.write_text(r.read().decode("utf-8")); # noqa
+# fmt: on
+
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import swydd as s
+
+
+@s.task
+def venv():
+    """setup up pdm venv"""
+    s.sh("pdm install")
+
+
+@s.task
+def dev():
+    """symlink development version"""
+    s.sh(f"mkdir -p {Path.home()}/.local/share/viv")
+    s.sh(f"mkdir -p {Path.home()}/.local/bin")
+    s.sh(
+        f"""ln -sf {Path.cwd()}/src/viv/viv.py """
+        f"""{Path.home()}/.local/share/viv/viv.py"""
+    )
+    s.sh(f"ln -sf {Path.home()}/.local/share/viv/viv.py {Path.home()}/.local/bin/viv")
+
+
+@s.targets("assets/viv-help.svg")
+def _():
+    s.sh(
+        "FORCE_COLOR=1 viv --help | "
+        "yartsu -t 'viv --help' -w 70 -o assets/viv-help.svg",
+        shell=True,
+    )
+
+
+@s.targets("examples/black")
+@s.needs("src/viv/viv.py")
+def _():
+    s.sh("rm -f examples/black")
+    s.sh("viv shim black -y -s -f -o examples/black")
+
+
+@s.task
+def clean():
+    """clean build artifacts"""
+    s.sh("rm -rf build dist")
+
+
+@s.task
+@s.option("names", "list of names (comma-seperated)")
+def examples(names: str = "cli,sys_path,exe_specific,frozen_import,named_env,scrape"):
+    """run examples to generate vivenvs"""
+    name_list = names.split(",")
+    for name in name_list:
+        s.sh(f"python examples/{name}.py")
+
+
+@s.task
+def release():
+    """generate new release"""
+    s.sh("./scripts/release.py")
+
+
+print(s.ctx._tasks.items())
+for id_, task in s.ctx._tasks.items():
+    print(task.name)
+    print(task.targets)
+    print(task.needs)
+s.cli()