# Linking to css file 'out of the box'

**URL:** https://discourse.roots.io/t/linking-to-css-file-out-of-the-box/3179
**Category:** sage
**Tags:** gulp
**Created:** 2015-03-11T05:50:33Z
**Posts:** 3

## Post 1 by @thomasj — 2015-03-11T05:50:34Z

Hi,  
I’ve been trying get roots working for a few days now. I’ve followed all the documentation and feel like I’m missing something.  
After I clone roots and install all the dependencies, should the sample page be linked to any css or bootstrap? I just don’t see how one links css to one’s project. Just loading a sample page with the roots theme shows the css stylesheet link as follows: but there’s no dist/styles/main.css file ‘out of the box’. This file doesn’t exist. When I run gulp ‘gulp’ it doesn’t compile the main.less file into any css file either. The site is not linking to any css or bootstrap files?

Have I not configured something? Where do I edit the main.css file and how do I compile the main.less file into the main.css file? I haven’t changed anything yet so I assumed it would work after following the installation instructions.  
I’m working on localhost with Xampp. There’s no HTACCESS file. I followed these instructions: [Roots Cannot Find CSS & JS Files](https://discourse.roots.io/t/roots-cannot-find-css-js-files/203)

Really keen to get this working. Cheers

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## Post 2 by @ben — 2015-03-11T05:56:24Z

This is covered in both the documentation and the README.

> **[roots/sage](https://github.com/roots/sage#theme-development)**
>
> WordPress starter theme with a modern development workflow - roots/sage

  
[https://roots.io/sage/docs/theme-development/](https://roots.io/sage/docs/theme-development/)

You need to follow all of the steps to build the assets.

1. `npm install -g gulp bower`
2. `npm install`
3. `bower install`
4. `gulp`

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## Post 3 by @ben — 2015-03-11T05:56:27Z