Production Build System#

Asok provides a powerful, zero-dependency build pipeline designed to generate lean, optimized, and secure distributions for production environments. The asok build command handles everything from asset minification to bytecode compilation.

The asok build Command#

To generate a production-ready distribution of your project, run:

asok build

This command creates a new directory (default: dist/) containing a self-contained, optimized version of your project.

What happens during the build?#

1. Cloning: The project structure is replicated into the output directory, excluding development artifacts like venv, .git, or .asok.
2. Asset Minification: All JS and CSS files within src/partials are recursively minified using esbuild.
3. HTML Optimization: Templates are minified to remove unnecessary whitespace and comments, significantly reducing TTFB.
4. Bytecode Compilation: All Python source files are compiled into .pyc files. By default, the original .py files are removed to create a "locked" distribution.
5. Image Optimization: If IMAGE_OPTIMIZATION=true is set, all project images are converted to WebP and originals are removed.
6. Production Config: A .env.production file is generated with DEBUG=false and security defaults.

Command Options#

Deployment Workflow#

Once the build is complete, your dist/ folder is ready for deployment. You can preview it locally using:

cd dist
asok preview

[!IMPORTANT] The asok preview command in the build folder correctly identifies wsgi.pyc as the entry point. In production environments (Gunicorn/Uvicorn), you should point your WSGI server to wsgi:app.

Performance Benefits#

By using asok build, you gain several performance advantages:

• Zero Runtime Minification: In production mode (DEBUG=false), Asok detects that templates are already optimized and skips on-the-fly minification, saving CPU cycles.
• Fast Startup: Bytecode compilation (.pyc) allows the Python interpreter to load modules faster.
• Optimized Assets: Small JS/CSS bundles and WebP images ensure faster page loads and lower bandwidth usage.
• Security: Shipping bytecode instead of source code adds a layer of obfuscation and prevents accidental source leaks.

Requirements#

The build system requires esbuild for asset minification. If not present, run:

asok assets --install