diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 3bfcb2b5..3fedd06a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,16 +3,9 @@ build/
 target/
 out/
 
-# Ignore Gradle GUI config
-gradle-app.setting
-
-# Avoid ignoring Gradle wrapper jar file (.jar files are usually ignored)
-!gradle-wrapper.jar
-
 # Cache of project
 .gradletasknamecache
 
-.*jar
 *.iml
 .idea
 
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 32ef4a6c..6e87b3e2 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -45,16 +45,17 @@ install:
   - sdk install kotlin
   - sdk install gradle
 
-  ## install assert.h
-  - wget https://raw.github.com/lehmannro/assert.sh/v1.1/assert.sh && chmod +x assert.sh
-
   - export KSCRIPT_HOME="/home/travis/build/holgerbrandl/kscript"
+  - export KSCRIPT_BUILD_LIBS="$KSCRIPT_HOME/build/libs"
   - pwd
-  - export PATH=$KSCRIPT_HOME::$PATH
+  - export PATH=$KSCRIPT_BUILD_LIBS::$PATH
 
   # build it
-  - cd $KSCRIPT_HOME && ./gradlew shadowJar
+  - cd $KSCRIPT_HOME && ./gradlew assemble
+  - cd $KSCRIPT_BUILD_LIBS
 
+  ## install assert.h
+  - wget https://raw.github.com/lehmannro/assert.sh/v1.1/assert.sh && chmod +x assert.sh
 
   - which kscript
   - which assert.sh
@@ -67,6 +68,7 @@ install:
   - kscript ${KSCRIPT_HOME}/test/resources/multi_line_deps.kts
 #  - resdeps.kts org.org.docopt:org.docopt:0.6.0-SNAPSHOT log4j:log4j:1.2.14
 #  - kscript ${KSCRIPT_HOME}/test/resources/multi_line_deps.kts
+  - cd $KSCRIPT_HOME
 
 script: ./test/test_suite.sh
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7d5aa6bf..fff16ea5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -81,10 +81,10 @@ brew install holgerbrandl/tap/kscript
 
 To build `kscript` yourself, simply clone the repo and do
 ```bash
-./gradlew shadowJar
+./gradlew assemble
 
-## Don't forget to prefix with `./` when running the freshly compiled version 
-./kscript
+## Run kscript from output dir
+./build/libs/kscript
 ```
 
 ## Script Input Modes
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
deleted file mode 100644
index fba62c20..00000000
--- a/build.gradle
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,49 +0,0 @@
-group 'com.github.holgerbrandl.kscript.launcher'
-version '0.1-SNAPSHOT'
-
-apply plugin: 'java'
-apply plugin: 'kotlin'
-//apply plugin: 'maven'
-apply plugin: 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow'
-
-
-dependencies {
-//    https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/java_plugin.html#sec:java_plugin_and_dependency_management
-    compileOnly "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:$kotlin_version"
-//    compile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:$kotlin_version"
-
-//    compile "org.apache.commons:commons-csv:1.3"
-    compile "com.offbytwo:docopt:0.6.0.20150202"
-
-    testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.11'
-    testCompile "io.kotlintest:kotlintest:2.0.7"
-}
-
-repositories {
-//    mavenCentral()
-    jcenter()
-}
-
-buildscript {
-    ext.kotlin_version = '1.2.30'
-    repositories {
-        jcenter()
-    }
-    dependencies {
-        classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:$kotlin_version"
-        classpath 'com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins:shadow:2.0.2'
-    }
-}
-
-
-// copy shadow output back into root directory for simplified testing (see http://imperceptiblethoughts.com/shadow/)
-shadowJar.doLast{
-    copy { from 'build/libs/kscript-0.1-SNAPSHOT-all.jar' ; into projectDir; rename { 'kscript.jar' } }
-}
-
-// make sure to remove kscript.jar in project root first on clean
-// from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29813189/how-do-i-extend-gradles-clean-task-to-delete-a-file
-clean.doFirst {
-    delete "${projectDir}/kscript.jar"
-    println "deleting  ./kscript.jar"
-}
diff --git a/build.gradle.kts b/build.gradle.kts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..59de44bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build.gradle.kts
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+import com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins.shadow.tasks.ShadowJar
+
+plugins {
+    kotlin("jvm") version "1.2.30"
+    id("com.github.johnrengelman.plugin-shadow") version "2.0.2"
+}
+
+group = "com.github.holgerbrandl.kscript.launcher"
+
+dependencies {
+    compileOnly("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib")
+
+    compile("com.offbytwo:docopt:0.6.0.20150202")
+
+    testCompile("junit:junit:4.12")
+    testCompile( "io.kotlintest:kotlintest:2.0.7")
+}
+
+repositories {
+    jcenter()
+}
+
+val shadowJar by tasks.getting(ShadowJar::class) {
+    // set empty string to classifier and version to get predictable jar file name: build/libs/kscript.jar
+    archiveName = "kscript.jar"
+    doLast {
+        copy {
+            from(File(projectDir, "src/kscript"))
+            into(archivePath.parentFile)
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+// Disable standard jar task to avoid building non-shadow jars
+val jar by tasks.getting {
+    enabled = false
+}
+// Build shadowJar when
+val assemble by tasks.getting {
+    dependsOn(shadowJar)
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index 736fb7d3..91ca28c8 100644
Binary files a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar and b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar differ
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index 57c7d2d2..e6a30918 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.7-all.zip
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.4.1-all.zip
diff --git a/misc/benchmarking/benchmarking.md b/misc/benchmarking/benchmarking.md
index bee999bb..92bcdbad 100644
--- a/misc/benchmarking/benchmarking.md
+++ b/misc/benchmarking/benchmarking.md
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ misc/benchmarking/benchmark_kscript.kts scriptlet_runtimes_$(git rev-parse --abb
 
 ## roll back to master and redo the benchmarking
 git checkout master
-./gradlew clean shadowJar
+./gradlew clean assemble
 
 misc/benchmarking/benchmark_kscript.kts scriptlet_runtimes_$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD).txt
 
diff --git a/misc/docker_tests.sh b/misc/docker_tests.sh
index ba2121ce..30fc4104 100644
--- a/misc/docker_tests.sh
+++ b/misc/docker_tests.sh
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ docker attach `docker ps -q -l` # reattach the terminal & stdin
 cd kscript
 export KSCRIPT_HOME=$(pwd)
 
-./gradlew shadowJar
+./gradlew assemble
 
 wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lehmannro/assert.sh/master/assert.sh
 chmod u+x assert.sh
diff --git a/misc/kscript_release.sh b/misc/kscript_release.sh
index 9c7313a1..b09b2860 100644
--- a/misc/kscript_release.sh
+++ b/misc/kscript_release.sh
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 # 3. Push and wait for travis CI results
 
 export KSCRIPT_HOME="/Users/brandl/projects/kotlin/kscript";
+export KSCRIPT_BUILD_LIBS="$KSCRIPT_HOME/build/libs";
 export PATH=${KSCRIPT_HOME}:${PATH}
 export PATH=~/go/bin/:$PATH
 
@@ -24,12 +25,12 @@ echo "new version is $kscript_version"
 
 cd $KSCRIPT_HOME
 
-./gradlew clean shadowJar
+./gradlew clean assemble
 
 ## compile binary distribution (including jar and wrapper-script)
 mkdir -p $KSCRIPT_ARCHIVE/kscript-${kscript_version}/bin
-cp ${KSCRIPT_HOME}/kscript ${KSCRIPT_ARCHIVE}/kscript-${kscript_version}/bin
-cp ${KSCRIPT_HOME}/kscript.jar ${KSCRIPT_ARCHIVE}/kscript-${kscript_version}/bin/kscript.jar
+cp ${KSCRIPT_BUILD_LIBS}/kscript ${KSCRIPT_ARCHIVE}/kscript-${kscript_version}/bin
+cp ${KSCRIPT_BUILD_LIBS}/kscript.jar ${KSCRIPT_ARCHIVE}/kscript-${kscript_version}/bin/kscript.jar
 
 cd ${KSCRIPT_ARCHIVE}
 rm ${KSCRIPT_ARCHIVE}/kscript-${kscript_version}.zip
@@ -42,7 +43,8 @@ open ${KSCRIPT_ARCHIVE}
 #Java SE 6.0 = 50 (0x32 hex) (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_class_file)
 #Default is 50, see https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/using-gradle.html#attributes-common-for-jvm-and-js
 ## to insepct do
-#./gradlew clean shadowJar && cp build/libs/kscript-0.1-SNAPSHOT-all.jar kscript.jar
+#./gradlew clean assemble
+#cd ${KSCRIPT_BUILD_LIBS}
 #rm -rf kscript_target_test
 #cp -f kscript.jar kscript_target_test.zip
 #unzip kscript_target_test.zip -d kscript_target_test
diff --git a/settings.gradle b/settings.gradle.kts
similarity index 100%
rename from settings.gradle
rename to settings.gradle.kts
diff --git a/kscript b/src/kscript
similarity index 100%
rename from kscript
rename to src/kscript
diff --git a/src/main/kotlin/kscript/app/ResolveIncludes.kt b/src/main/kotlin/kscript/app/ResolveIncludes.kt
index 76a9e071..a66da801 100644
--- a/src/main/kotlin/kscript/app/ResolveIncludes.kt
+++ b/src/main/kotlin/kscript/app/ResolveIncludes.kt
@@ -78,8 +78,8 @@ internal fun extractIncludeTarget(incDirective: String) = when {
  * Usage Example:
  * ```
  * cd $KSCRIPT_HOME
- * ./gradlew shadowJar
- * resolve_inc() { kotlin -classpath build/libs/kscript-0.1-SNAPSHOT-all.jar kscript.app.ResolveIncludes "$@";}
+ * ./gradlew assemble
+ * resolve_inc() { kotlin -classpath build/libs/kscript.jar kscript.app.ResolveIncludes "$@";}
  * resolve_inc /Users/brandl/projects/kotlin/kscript/test/resources/includes/include_variations.kts
  * cat $(resolve_inc /Users/brandl/projects/kotlin/kscript/test/resources/includes/include_variations.kts 2>&1)
  * ```
diff --git a/test/TestsReadme.md b/test/TestsReadme.md
index 678f914f..4f41b7ca 100644
--- a/test/TestsReadme.md
+++ b/test/TestsReadme.md
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ which assert.sh || exit 1
 cd ${KSCRIPT_HOME}
 
 ## build it
-./gradlew shadowJar
+./gradlew assemble
 
 
 ## clean up the environment
diff --git a/test/test_suite.sh b/test/test_suite.sh
index f16758d3..f1068da6 100755
--- a/test/test_suite.sh
+++ b/test/test_suite.sh
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ assert_end environment_tests
 ## dependency_lookup
 
 # export KSCRIPT_HOME="/Users/brandl/projects/kotlin/kscript"; export PATH=${KSCRIPT_HOME}:${PATH}
-resolve_deps() { kotlin -classpath kscript.jar kscript.app.DependencyUtil "$@";}
+resolve_deps() { kotlin -classpath ${KSCRIPT_BUILD_LIBS}/kscript.jar kscript.app.DependencyUtil "$@";}
 export -f resolve_deps
 
 
@@ -240,7 +240,7 @@ assert 'kscript "println(args.size)" "foo bar"' 1       ## allow for spaces
 assert 'kscript "println(args[0])" "foo bar"' "foo bar" ## make sure quotes are not propagated into args
 
 
-kscript_nocall() { kotlin -classpath kscript.jar kscript.app.KscriptKt "$@";}
+kscript_nocall() { kotlin -classpath ${KSCRIPT_BUILD_LIBS}/kscript.jar kscript.app.KscriptKt "$@";}
 export -f kscript_nocall
 
 ## temp projects with include symlinks