diff --git a/build/build.js b/build/build.js
index 77be716eb..056e787ff 100644
--- a/build/build.js
+++ b/build/build.js
@@ -7,9 +7,11 @@ const copyAssets = require('./lib/copy-assets')
 const transpileBabelPaths = require('./lib/transpile-babel-paths')
 const transpileCoffeeScriptPaths = require('./lib/transpile-coffee-script-paths')
 const transpileCsonPaths = require('./lib/transpile-cson-paths')
+const packageApplication = require('./lib/package-application')
 
 cleanOutputDirectory()
 copyAssets()
 transpileBabelPaths()
 transpileCoffeeScriptPaths()
 transpileCsonPaths()
+packageApplication()
diff --git a/build/lib/package-application.js b/build/lib/package-application.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..88cc79cfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/lib/package-application.js
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+'use strict'
+
+// This is where we'll run electron-packager on our intermediate app dir.
+// It takes an ignore regex for paths to exclude, and I've started on a function
+// to build up this regexp based on existing work in build-task.coffee. We should
+// try to lean on electron-packager to do as much of the work for us as possible
+// other than transpilation. It looks like it has a programmatic API. We'll need to
+// copy more stuff such as the package.json for the packager to work correctly.
+
+const electronPackager = require('electron-packager')
+
+const CONFIG = require('../config')
+
+module.exports = function () {
+  console.log(`Running electron-packager on ${CONFIG.intermediateAppPath}`)
+  // https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/blob/master/docs/api.md
+  // electronPackager(...)
+}
+
+function buildIgnoredPathsRegExp () {
+  const ignoredPaths = [
+    '.DS_Store',
+    '.jshintrc',
+    '.npmignore',
+    '.pairs',
+    '.travis.yml',
+    'appveyor.yml',
+    '.idea',
+    '.editorconfig',
+    '.lint',
+    '.lintignore',
+    '.eslintrc',
+    '.jshintignore',
+    'coffeelint.json',
+    '.coffeelintignore',
+    '.gitattributes',
+    '.gitkeep',
+    path.join('git-utils', 'deps'),
+    path.join('oniguruma', 'deps'),
+    path.join('less', 'dist'),
+    path.join('npm', 'doc'),
+    path.join('npm', 'html'),
+    path.join('npm', 'man'),
+    path.join('npm', 'node_modules', '.bin', 'beep'),
+    path.join('npm', 'node_modules', '.bin', 'clear'),
+    path.join('npm', 'node_modules', '.bin', 'starwars'),
+    path.join('pegjs', 'examples'),
+    path.join('get-parameter-names', 'node_modules', 'testla'),
+    path.join('get-parameter-names', 'node_modules', '.bin', 'testla'),
+    path.join('jasmine-reporters', 'ext'),
+    path.join('jasmine-node', 'node_modules', 'gaze'),
+    path.join('jasmine-node', 'spec'),
+    path.join('node_modules', 'nan'),
+    path.join('node_modules', 'native-mate'),
+    path.join('build', 'binding.Makefile'),
+    path.join('build', 'config.gypi'),
+    path.join('build', 'gyp-mac-tool'),
+    path.join('build', 'Makefile'),
+    path.join('build', 'Release', 'obj.target'),
+    path.join('build', 'Release', 'obj'),
+    path.join('build', 'Release', '.deps'),
+    path.join('vendor', 'apm'),
+
+    // These are only required in dev-mode, when pegjs grammars aren't precompiled
+    path.join('snippets', 'node_modules', 'loophole'),
+    path.join('snippets', 'node_modules', 'pegjs'),
+    path.join('snippets', 'node_modules', '.bin', 'pegjs'),
+  ]
+
+  const regExpSource = ignoredPaths.map(path => '(' + escapeRegExp(path) + ')').join('|')
+  return new RegExp(regExpSource)
+}
+
+function escapeRegExp (string) {
+  string.replace(/[.?*+^$[\]\\(){}|-]/g, "\\$&")
+}
diff --git a/build/package.json b/build/package.json
index 0b2c461cf..6f883b78c 100644
--- a/build/package.json
+++ b/build/package.json
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
   "name": "atom-build-scripts",
   "description": "Atom build scripts",
   "dependencies": {
+    "electron-packager": "^7.3.0",
     "fs-extra": "0.30.0",
     "glob": "7.0.3",
     "mkdirp": "0.5.1"