diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a10b30976..f1310f3d6 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ from setupbase import (
     find_package_data,
     check_package_data_first,
     CompileCSS,
+    CompileJS,
     Bower,
     JavascriptVersion,
     css_js_prerelease,
@@ -107,9 +108,10 @@ from distutils.command.sdist import sdist
 setup_args['cmdclass'] = {
     'build_py': css_js_prerelease(
             check_package_data_first(build_py)),
-    'sdist' : css_js_prerelease(sdist),
+    'sdist' : css_js_prerelease(sdist, strict=True),
     'css' : CompileCSS,
-    'js' : Bower,
+    'js' : CompileJS,
+    'jsdeps' : Bower,
     'jsversion' : JavascriptVersion,
 }
 
diff --git a/setupbase.py b/setupbase.py
index b42944cea..0d1724fa7 100644
--- a/setupbase.py
+++ b/setupbase.py
@@ -361,14 +361,41 @@ class CompileCSS(Command):
         pass
 
     def run(self):
-        
-        self.run_command('js')
+        self.run_command('jsdeps')
         env = os.environ.copy()
         env['PATH'] = npm_path
         try:
             check_call(['gulp','css'], cwd=repo_root, env=env)
         except OSError as e:
-            print("Failed to run gulp: %s" % e, file=sys.stderr)
+            print("Failed to run gulp css: %s" % e, file=sys.stderr)
+            print("You can install js dependencies with `npm install`", file=sys.stderr)
+            raise
+        # update package data in case this created new files
+        update_package_data(self.distribution)
+
+
+class CompileJS(Command):
+    """Rebuild minified Notebook Javascript
+    
+    Calls `gulp js`
+    """
+    description = "Rebuild Notebook Javascript"
+    user_options = []
+
+    def initialize_options(self):
+        pass
+
+    def finalize_options(self):
+        pass
+
+    def run(self):
+        self.run_command('jsdeps')
+        env = os.environ.copy()
+        env['PATH'] = npm_path
+        try:
+            check_call(['gulp','js'], cwd=repo_root, env=env)
+        except OSError as e:
+            print("Failed to run gulp js: %s" % e, file=sys.stderr)
             print("You can install js dependencies with `npm install`", file=sys.stderr)
             raise
         # update package data in case this created new files
@@ -401,19 +428,26 @@ class JavascriptVersion(Command):
                 raise RuntimeError("Didn't find IPython.version line in %s" % nsfile)
 
 
-def css_js_prerelease(command):
-    """decorator for building js/minified css prior to another command"""
+def css_js_prerelease(command, strict=False):
+    """decorator for building minified js/css prior to another command"""
     class DecoratedCommand(command):
         def run(self):
             self.distribution.run_command('jsversion')
+            jsdeps = self.distribution.get_command_obj('jsdeps')
+            jsdeps.force = True
             js = self.distribution.get_command_obj('js')
             js.force = True
             css = self.distribution.get_command_obj('css')
             css.force = True
             try:
                 self.distribution.run_command('css')
+                self.distribution.run_command('js')
             except Exception as e:
-                log.warn("rebuilding css and sourcemaps failed (not a problem)")
-                log.warn(str(e))
+                if strict:
+                    log.warn("rebuilding js and css failed")
+                    raise e
+                else:
+                    log.warn("rebuilding js and css failed (not a problem)")
+                    log.warn(str(e))
             command.run(self)
     return DecoratedCommand