By Tom Lane

A simple JSON file that states essential information for front-end tools to be able to just drop in to an existing project and begin working straight away.

Most front-end tools (such as Yeoman) are only compatible if the project is created using the tool itself and has no support for existing projects.

Implementation will need to happen in 2 stages:

• Tools need to check for the existence of this file and work accordingly.
• Existing projects need to create a project.json file in order for it to be used and processed by the tools.

• Directory information.
  • CSS
    • Pre-processor input directory.
    • CSS output directory.
    • Linting?
    • Minifying?
  • Javascript
    • Pre-processor input directory (e.g. coffeescript).
    • JS output directory.
    • Linting?
    • Minifying?
  • HTML
    • Pre-processor input directory.
    • HTML output directory.
    • Linting?
    • Minifying?
  • Project server directory
    • Where to serve files from for local server testing.
• Existing tools used.

Yes, being JSON the contents and uses can be very flexible. For example, existing JSON such as Bower's component.json can easily be integrated.