The gulp tasks are run from thea [[Command-line interface|Command Line Interface (CLI)]]<ref name="gulpjs/gulp"/> shell like Grunt and require package.json and gulpfile.js(simply gulpfile) in the project root directory. The gulpfile is where all the plugins are loaded and the tasks are defined. First, all the necessary modules are loaded and then tasks are defined in the gulpfile. All the necessary plugins specified in the gulpfile are installed into the devDependencies.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|url=https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/install|title=install {{!}} npm Documentation|website=docs.npmjs.com|access-date=2016-09-22}}</ref> The default task runs by <code>$gulp</code>. Individual tasks can be defined by gulp.task and are run by <code>gulp <task> <othertask></code>.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://github.com/gulpjs/gulp/blob/master/docs/getting-started.md|title=gulpjs/gulp|website=GitHub|access-date=2016-09-23}}</ref> Complex tasks are defined by chaining the plugins with the help of <code>.pipe()</code> operator.<ref name=":3" />
