What to do with automation and control files after creating a single page application?

Question

npm

Automation tools for frontend development are a lot of files and folders.
What do they do with them after the project is completed?
So everything remains for further work? Or is the finished version somehow exported with only the finished product?

Answer 1

Use for further product development of course.
So you started, for example, with layout. The preprocessor, variables, everything is coolly assembled and minified.
100% that at some stage of the life of the project you will need to make changes.
At least change the color of the button.
An abstract example, let's say initially we had a certain $color variable that set the color for various elements.
1. You have sources and a configured collector. You change some variable, rebuild the css file and you're done.
2. You only have sources. You spend a third of your time finding and configuring the builder, then changing the variable, building the final file, and you're done.
3. You have a minified css file. You are looking for a way to "unminify" it, look for all the elements where you need to change the color (search and replace, by the way, may not help - maybe the same color somehow ended up in another variable), then it would be nice to minify it again .. .. Well, you understand.
UPD: it is natural that we upload only collected files to the combat server, and the source codes and files of the assembly are stored in the repository