diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 4cb12784f5..1eb148df02 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -24,3 +24,4 @@ test/test.js
 
 # React / TypeScript
 ts/**/*.js
+ts/protobuf/*.d.ts
diff --git a/.prettierignore b/.prettierignore
index 548f196286..f2403751a0 100644
--- a/.prettierignore
+++ b/.prettierignore
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ libtextsecure/components.js
 libtextsecure/test/test.js
 test/test.js
 ts/**/*.js
-ts/protobuf/**
+ts/protobuf/*.js
+ts/protobuf/*.d.ts
 
 # Third-party files
 components/**
diff --git a/Gruntfile.js b/Gruntfile.js
index bc43e1bb1d..1ba0900262 100644
--- a/Gruntfile.js
+++ b/Gruntfile.js
@@ -194,6 +194,10 @@ module.exports = function(grunt) {
         files: ['./libtextsecure/*.js', './libtextsecure/storage/*.js'],
         tasks: ['concat:libtextsecure'],
       },
+      protobuf: {
+        files: ['./protos/SignalService.proto'],
+        tasks: ['exec:build-protobuf'],
+      },
       sass: {
         files: ['./stylesheets/*.scss'],
         tasks: ['sass'],
@@ -218,6 +222,9 @@ module.exports = function(grunt) {
       transpile: {
         cmd: 'yarn transpile',
       },
+      'build-protobuf': {
+        cmd: 'yarn build-protobuf',
+      },
     },
     'test-release': {
       osx: {
@@ -503,6 +510,7 @@ module.exports = function(grunt) {
     'copy:deps',
     'sass',
     'date',
+    'exec:build-protobuf',
     'exec:transpile',
   ]);
 };
diff --git a/ts/protobuf/README.md b/ts/protobuf/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..57cdbc733d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ts/protobuf/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Protocol Buffers
+
+Placeholder directory for Protocol Buffers compiled to JavaScript / TypeScript.