Running scripts

The compatibility badge is the migration-risk feature. As staff edit a script, a classifier grades it green, yellow, or red for PowerShell 7 compatibility, and flagged scripts get one routing question before they execute instead of failing mid-run in production. For a team sitting on years of 5.1 scripts, that converts unknown porting risk into a per-script verdict they see while editing.

The toolbar picker sets the engine per tab: Auto, pinned PowerShell 7, or pinned Windows PowerShell 5.1. Under Auto, a flagged script prompts once — Yes routes the run to Windows PowerShell 5.1, No pins 7, Cancel runs nothing — and the answer sticks until the text changes. Pin the engine when you know better than the classifier. F5 on a saved, clean file runs the file dot-sourced, so $PSScriptRoot resolves and relative includes work; a dirty buffer runs the on-screen text. Stop ends the pipeline without recycling the session, so your variables survive. An execution timeout is available in Settings, off by default.

Write your script in the editor, press F5, read the results in the console. To try just a few lines, select them and press F8. If a box pops up asking about Windows PowerShell 5.1, that’s DetentShell noticing your script uses something the newer PowerShell doesn’t have, and offering to run it the old way. If a script runs away from you, the red Stop button on the toolbar ends it, and everything you’d already loaded is still there afterward.

Engine routing is deliberate and visible: which engine ran a script is never a silent decision, which keeps run behavior explainable after the fact.