VS Code: How to exclude folders from npm task auto-detection?

Try (in your settings.json)

"npm.exclude": "**/bin/**"

that works for me to exclude scripts in workspaceFolder/bin/package.json

"npm.exclude" requires a "string and uses glob. So, my settings for npm.exclude, with multiple rules:

"npm.exclude": "**/@(vendor|node_modules|bower_components|dist|static)/**"