Since this is my first post on Medium I guess I had better start off with some background.

I am a front-end web developer with an unusual job, that I can’t really talk about. In a few short months though, I have worked on some really exciting projects for the USAF, NFL, CES 2016, and even local law enforcement agencies.

I mean, basically.

We have built mobile apps, desktop apps, websites and even projects with complimenting hardware. Needless to say, we make things, and we make them fast.

Gotta go fast.

The problem is, I want to make them even faster.

I have been a long time Gulp user since I found out about it, and still love Gulp’s ease of use over Grunt. I have some fond memories writing unnecessarily complex Gulp files, but it felt good, because they weren’t Grunt files.

I found myself wasting a lot of time though, either editing my boilerplate gulp file to fit my next project’s file structure, ironing out the kinks, or writing a new one from scratch.

Most importantly though, if someone added a file where Gulp wasn’t watching, nothing happened, and they got sad.

One day though, all of my problems were solved! I found Meteor! You could make a sass file anywhere, and it just knew. It was magic.

I didn’t really know what it was though. It’s more of a isomorphic framework (I think?) and not so much a build tool. Even though it builds things?

Meteor takes a leap of faith and blind dedication to the Meteor gods, and that’s usually something I tend to avoid. Meteor has its place in my toolbox, (and heart) but I don’t see it being my solution for every project.

I knew though, if someone could make a build tool as effortless and fun to work with as Meteor, that would be the future.

Enter Brunch. Possibly the front-end web’s first build tool… the fuck?

Outside of its weird name, this is the coolest build tool I have seen. It has all the good parts of something like Webpack, but with a Meteor like workflow, and unparalleled (faster than gulp for me) speed. The weird part is it’s been around since as early as 2011…

My Brunch config file can do anything my old boilerplate Gulp file can but it’s a few hundred lines shorter. Also, Brunch provides its own really basic file structure to wrap your code in, so a boilerplate Brunch file can actually be just that.

Other than changing settings, or adding functionality, there is no making things work.

Another interesting feature is “Skeletons.” They are much like Yeoman’s Generators, but better, because they are just boilerplate projects pulled down from repositories. Dead simple (get it? Skeletons.), and fast.

Spooky AF

I don’t even like writing about web stuff, but there is something about Brunch that makes me want to scream its weird name from the rooftops, convert every past project to it, and maybe even start a public access TV show about it.

So give it a try, and tell me what you think. (Or send me hate mails, the weekends are lonely.)