_{Official ZPE/YASS documentation}Compiling projects and bundling resources

ZPE can compile an entire directory as one YASS project. All .yas files below the project root are combined in deterministic path order, while non-source files are bundled as project resources.

Project layout

my-project/
  main.yas
  lib/
    people.yas
  resources/
    settings.json
    logo.png
  

Keep generated files and secrets outside the project root unless they are deliberately intended to become part of the compiled application.

Compiling a project

Select the project directory as the compilation input. ZPE detects that the input is a directory, combines its YASS sources and embeds its other files. Host applications can perform the same work through ZPEKit's project-directory reading and compilation methods.

Running or debugging a source directory from the command line requires the --directory option. This prevents a directory from being accepted accidentally where an ordinary source file was intended.

Bundled resources

Use get_resource to obtain a safe path to a file relative to the project root:

$settings_path = get_resource("resources/settings.json")
$settings = file_read($settings_path)
  

In source mode the path resolves beneath the source project's root. In a compiled application it resolves to the corresponding bundled resource. Unsafe paths and missing resources return undefined.

Excluding functions from compiled applications

Place @compile false immediately before a function to omit that function from the compiled executable:

@compile false
function development_helper()
  print("Development only")
end function
  

The function remains available during normal interpreted execution and HYPR execution; only compiled-application output omits it.

Its implementation was made available in ZPE 1.14.9 (Spurriergate, September 2026).