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+# Basic Gulp Build for Sass
+
+2019-01-15
+
+Some designers might shy away from build tools when first starting out and I can understand the reasoning - task runners like `gulp` and `grunt` can seem daunting at first. So, I've decided to showcase my go-to setup for `gulp` and explain what the heck it does step-by-step. 
+
+Here is the final `gulp.js` file in all it's glory:
+
+
+    var gulp = require('gulp');
+    var shell = require('gulp-shell');
+    var sass = require('gulp-sass');
+    
+    /* Build and watch Jekyll (change this task to whatever you need) */
+    gulp.task('generate', shell.task('jekyll serve'));
+    
+    /* Compile SCSS files to CSS */
+    gulp.task('styles', function () {
+        return gulp.src('_includes/assets/sass/styles.scss')
+            .pipe(sass({
+                outputStyle: 'compressed'
+            }).on('error', sass.logError))
+            .pipe(gulp.dest('_includes/assets/css/'));
+    });
+    
+    /* Compile the assets */
+    gulp.task('assets', gulp.parallel(
+        'styles'
+    ));
+    
+    /* Build */
+    gulp.task('build', gulp.series(
+        'assets',
+        'generate'
+    ));
+
+
+Trust me, it's not complicated at all.
+
+## Grabbing what we need
+
+For our basic build file we are going to need only three modules: `gulp`, `gulp-shell` and `gulp-sass`.
+
+
+    var gulp = require('gulp');
+    var shell = require('gulp-shell');
+    var sass = require('gulp-sass');
+
+
+#### gulp
+This is the streaming build system, without it we can't do anything else.
+
+#### gulp-shell
+A gulp command line interface for us to interact with our terminal.
+
+#### gulp-sass
+Required for gulp to compile Sass into vanilla CSS.
+
+#### Bonus tasks
+
+<p>You can also toss in <code>gulp-minify</code> to clean-up any JavaScript you might be using, but for this example we're just going to keep things simple and focus on Sass only.</p>
+
+<p class="no-margin">Maybe I'll write about my <code>js</code> build workflow in a future article.</p>
+
+## Generating the build
+
+Our first step is to create the default task that will generate our build. In this example we are making the assumption that we're building a Jekyll website (but you can place any build command here):
+
+
+    gulp.task('generate', shell.task('jekyll serve'));
+
+
+Don't worry if this `generate` isn't clear, we come back to that later.
+
+## Processing our pre-processor
+
+We will name this next task `styles` since that's what it outputs - our styling. We start by telling gulp where our main `scss` directory is:
+
+
+    /* Change this directory to match yours */
+    return gulp.src('_includes/assets/sass/styles.scss')
+
+
+This next piece tells the plugin to compress our final compiled CSS, log any errors if there are issues with the build and then export it to our destination directory:
+
+
+    .pipe(sass({
+        outputStyle: 'compressed'
+    }).on('error', sass.logError))
+
+    /* Change this to your destination directory */
+    .pipe(gulp.dest('_includes/assets/css/'));
+
+
+## Building our assets
+
+This step isn't 100% needed, but I like to include it for when more assets need to be added (minifying JavaScript, compressing images, etc)
+
+
+    /*
+    Compile the assets
+    */
+    gulp.task('assets', gulp.parallel(
+        'styles'
+    ));
+
+
+## Altogether now!
+
+Now we add a task that runs all other tasks in our gulp file (in this case it will run both `assets` and `generate`)
+
+
+    /*
+    Build
+    */
+    gulp.task('build', gulp.series(
+        'assets',
+        'generate'
+    ));
+
+
+And that's it - we're done! A very basic `gulp` build for compiling Sass.
+