Defining a Custom System

When you're building your custom system, you'll need to add new components to your system.emulsify.json file in order for the CLI to know they exists, and what to do with them.
The process is pretty straight-forward. Let's take a look at an example pulled from the system.emulsify.json for Compound.
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{
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  "name": "compound",
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  "homepage": "https://github.com/emulsify-ds/compound",
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  "repository": "https://github.com/emulsify-ds/compound.git",
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  "structure": [
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    {
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      "name": "base",
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      "description": "Base-level components used in virtually every higher-level component"
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    },
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    {
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      "name": "atoms",
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      "description": "Small components commonly used in higher-level components"
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    },
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    {
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      "name": "molecules",
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      "description": "Medium-sized components used as building blocks within a larger component"
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    },
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    {
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      "name": "organisms",
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      "description": "Large components that compose smaller components into a cohesive UI"
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    },
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    {
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      "name": "templates",
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      "description": "Collection of layout templates."
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    },
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    {
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      "name": "pages",
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      "description": "Entire pages built using smaller components"
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    }
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  ],
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  "variants": [
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    {
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      "platform": "drupal",
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      "structureImplementations": [
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        {
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          "name": "base",
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          "directory": "./components/00-base"
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        },
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        {
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          "name": "atoms",
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          "directory": "./components/01-atoms"
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        },
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        {
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          "name": "molecules",
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          "directory": "./components/02-molecules"
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        },
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        {
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          "name": "organisms",
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          "directory": "./components/03-organisms"
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        },
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        {
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          "name": "templates",
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          "directory": "./components/04-templates"
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        },
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        {
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          "name": "pages",
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          "directory": "./components/05-pages"
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        }
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      ],
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      "directories": [
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        {
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          "name": "template-components",
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          "path": "./components/04-templates",
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          "destinationPath": "./components/04-templates",
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          "description": "Contains default templates and layouts that are required"
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        },
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        {
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          // other directories
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        }
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      ],
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      "files": [
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        {
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          "name": "style",
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          "path": "./components/style.scss",
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          "destinationPath": "./components/style.scss",
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          "description": "Primary style scss file"
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        }
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      ],
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      "components": [
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        {
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          "name": "01-colors",
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          "structure": "base",
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          "required": true
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        },
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        {
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          // other "base" components
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        },
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        {
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          "name": "buttons",
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          "structure": "atoms",
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          "required": true
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        },
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        {
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          // other "atoms"
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        },
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        {
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          "name": "card",
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          "structure": "molecules"
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        },
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        {
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          // other "molecules"
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        },
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        {
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          "name": "grid",
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          "structure": "organisms"
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        },
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        {
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          // other "organisms"
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        }
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      ]
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    }
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  ]
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}
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Name
The "name" key is simply used to identify your system. That's about it.
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  "name": "compound",
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Homepage
The "homepage" key is used to link to your system's main web site. This will often be the system's repository, but if you have a separate website used to document your system, for example, you can link to that.
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  "homepage": "https://github.com/emulsify-ds/compound",
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Repository
The "repository" key is used to identify the location your system can be installed from. Compound is hosted on GitHub so it's the git URL in this example.
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  "repository": "https://github.com/emulsify-ds/compound.git",
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Structure
The structure section is where you define the "structure" (or categories) of your components. In this example, the system follows an atomic methodology, so components can be identified as "base", "atoms", "molecules", "organisms", or "pages". Each with a description of the term.
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"structure": [
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  {
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    "name": "base",
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    "description": "Base-level components used in virtually every higher-level component"
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  },
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  {
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    "name": "atoms",
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    "description": "Small components commonly used in higher-level components"
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  },
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  {
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    "name": "molecules",
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    "description": "Medium-sized components used as building blocks within a larger component"
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  },
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  {
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    "name": "organisms",
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    "description": "Large components that compose smaller components into a cohesive UI"
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  },
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  {
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    "name": "templates",
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    "description": "Collection of layout templates."
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  },
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  {
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    "name": "pages",
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    "description": "Entire pages built using smaller components"
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  }
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],
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Variants
The "variants" array is where you define the variants you support. This example only has one variant to support Drupal sites, but you could have additional variants for other CMSs like Wordpress, or even other languages, like React. Each variant requires a "platform" to be defined, which is used by the project implementing a system to determine which files, directories, and components are available, as well as where to install them. Those options are documented below.
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  "variants": [
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    {
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      "platform": "drupal",
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      "structureImplementations": [],
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      "directories": [],
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      "files": [],
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      "components": []
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    }
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  ]
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Structure Implementation
In the "variants" array, there's a "drupal" variant, and in that variant, you'll see the "structureImplementations" array. This tells the CLI where, in the directory structure of a project, components of each type should be installed.
So when you run a command like emulsify component install card from within your project, this example would install the card (molecule) component at the location <project>/molecules/02-molecules/card
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    "structureImplementations": [
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      {
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        "name": "base",
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        "directory": "./components/00-base"
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      },
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      {
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        "name": "atoms",
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        "directory": "./components/01-atoms"
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      },
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      {
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        "name": "molecules",
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        "directory": "./components/02-molecules"
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      },
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      {
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        "name": "organisms",
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        "directory": "./components/03-organisms"
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      },
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      {
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        "name": "templates",
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        "directory": "./components/04-templates"
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      },
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      {
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        "name": "pages",
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        "directory": "./components/05-pages"
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      }
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    ],
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Directories
Sometimes, you know that any time you install your system, you'll always want a set of components, files, etc. that all live in a specific directory. This is very common for "base-level" components, styles, mixins, etc. that may not even necessarily qualify as components, but are considered required for every project.
The "directories" array lets you specify one or more directories that should be copied, in whole, any time the system is installed.
In the example below, we're brining over the templates directory which includes all of the "page-level" layouts.
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    "directories": [
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      {
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        "name": "template-components",
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        "path": "./components/04-templates",
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        "destinationPath": "./components/04-templates",
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        "description": "Contains default templates and layouts that are required"
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      },
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      {
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        // other directories
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      }
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    ],
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Files
Like directories, there may be specific files that are required that don't necessarily relate to any other grouping of files. The "files" array let's you choose specific files to copy over on install.
This example shows how the main style.scss file (that globs component scss files) is copied as a required file.
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    "files": [
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      {
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        "name": "style",
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        "path": "./components/style.scss",
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        "destinationPath": "./components/style.scss",
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        "description": "Primary style scss file"
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      }
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    ],
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Components
Finally, individual components can be identified to the system so that projects can install them individually, as needed.
In this example, you'll see that each component has a "structure" key that evaluates to one of the options in the "structureImplementations" section. This tells the CLI where the component should be installed.
Then, each component also requires a "name", which identifies the directory that contains the component files.
Note: if you have multiple components nested in a common directory like "molecules/cards/news-card" and "molecules/cards/event-card" you can specify them individually by giving them the names "cards/news-card" and "cards/event-card", respectively. And/or you can support installing them both at the same time by creating a "components" entry simply named "cards", and that will install everything in the "cards" directory, recursively.
Finally, you'll notice some of the components additional have "required": true . This will tell the CLI to install that component upon initial install as a required component.
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    "components": [
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      {
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        "name": "01-colors",
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        "structure": "base",
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        "required": true
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      },
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      {
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        // other "base" components
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      },
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      {
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        "name": "buttons",
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        "structure": "atoms",
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        "required": true
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      },
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      {
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        // other "atoms"
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      },
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      {
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        "name": "card",
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        "structure": "molecules"
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      },
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      {
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        // other "molecules"
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      },
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      {
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        "name": "grid",
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        "structure": "organisms"
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      },
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      {
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        // other "organisms"
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      }
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    ]
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Emulsify CLI Usage
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Contents
Structure Implementation
Directories
Files
Components