Configure Gradle to work like a script or batch file

I have a Kotlin program that looks like this:

fun main(args: Array<String>) = runBlocking {
    if(args.first() == "deploy") {
        // do deployment
    }
}

Putting aside the obvious null-pointer issue for the moment, if I want to run this via Gradle I would have to enter this at the command-line...

gradle run --args="deploy"

... which is really verbose and cludgy. What I really want to be able to do is to issue a command like this and have it do the same thing:

gradle deploy

I don't really want to write a script or a batch file as these tend to be OS-specific and I feel like Gradle might be powerful enough to provide a solution. On that note however, I have been trawling through Gradle documentation and keep disappearing down rabbit holes wrt Tasks etc, hence my question here.

Assuming you are using the Kotlin JVM plugin, you can add the task you need in Kotlin DSL by writing:

tasks.register<JavaExec>("deploy") {
    classpath = files(
        kotlin.target.compilations.named(SourceSet.MAIN_SOURCE_SET_NAME).map {
            it.output.allOutputs + it.runtimeDependencyFiles
        }
    )
    // For a main() function in src/main/kotlin/package/of/main/Main.kt
    mainClass = "package.of.main.MainKt"
    args("deploy")
}

The task type used here, JavaExec, can be further configured if you want to make more technical adjustments.