Built-In Tasks

Skier comes with a suite of built-in tasks to cover the most common needs in static site generation. Each task is modular, configurable, and can be used independently or as part of your pipeline.

Below you'll find a list of all built-in tasks, with a short summary and a link to the full documentation for each.

Task Index

• prepareOutputTask: Ensures the output directory exists and is ready for site generation. Typically the first task in your pipeline.
• copyStaticTask: Copies static assets (images, fonts, CSS, JS, etc.) from a source directory to your output directory. Use this to include files that don’t require processing (such as favicon, robots.txt, fonts, etc.) in your generated site.
• bundleCssTask: Bundles and minifies CSS files for your site. Use this to optimize your stylesheets for production by combining multiple CSS files into one and reducing file size.
• setGlobalsTask: Sets global variables for use in templates and tasks. Use this to define site-wide values (site title, author, base URL, etc.) that are available everywhere in your pipeline.
• setGlobalFromMarkdownTask: Reads a Markdown file, renders it to HTML, and sets the result as a global variable for use in templates and tasks. Ideal for site-wide content like an About section, footer, or legal notices.
• generatePagesTask: Generates static HTML pages from templates and partials. Use this to render your site's main pages (home, about, contact, etc.) with Handlebars or HTML templates.
• generateItemsTask: Generates HTML pages for collections of items (e.g., blog posts, portfolio entries) from Markdown or data files. Supports sorting, excerpts, custom templates, and configurable output structure.
• generateFeedTask: Generates RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds from your site's content (typically blog posts or articles). Use this to provide feed subscriptions for readers and syndication services.
• generateSitemapTask: Generates a sitemap.xml file for your site based on the pages produced by your build. This helps search engines index your site efficiently.

For details on configuring and using each task, click the task name above or see the Getting Started guide for a walkthrough of a typical pipeline.