diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index fb7ae50..c3e9b27 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,3 +2,6 @@
 
 # asm gen testing
 /asm
+
+# output
+/out
diff --git a/src/asm_gen.rs b/src/asm_gen.rs
index f2a7280..8ba37b5 100644
--- a/src/asm_gen.rs
+++ b/src/asm_gen.rs
@@ -6,21 +6,17 @@ pub fn generate(tokens: Vec<Token>) -> String {
 	let mut output = String::new();
 
 	// reserving mem
+	// global start label
+	// create the pointer for our data
 	output.push_str(
 		"section .bss\n\
-		data: resb 65536\n",
-	);
-
-	// global start label
-	output.push_str(
-		"global _start\n\
+		data: resb 65536\n\
+		global _start\n\
 		section .text\n\
-		_start:\n",
+		_start:\n\
+		mov rdx, data\n",
 	);
 
-	// create the pointer for our data
-	output.push_str("mov rdx, data\n");
-
 	let mut loops = 0;
 	let mut stack: VecDeque<usize> = VecDeque::new();
 	for token in tokens {
diff --git a/src/compiler.rs b/src/compiler.rs
index 15f832b..aecf7fe 100644
--- a/src/compiler.rs
+++ b/src/compiler.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-use std::{fs, io::Write, path::PathBuf};
+use core::panic;
+use std::{env, fs, io::Write, path::PathBuf, process};
 
 use crate::{asm_gen, tokenizer};
 
@@ -6,7 +7,57 @@ pub fn compile(program: Vec<u8>, name: String) {
 	let tokens = tokenizer::tokenize(program);
 	let asm = asm_gen::generate(tokens);
 
-	let path: PathBuf = [".", &format!("./{name}.asm")].iter().collect();
+	let out_path: PathBuf = [".", "out"].iter().collect();
+	fs::DirBuilder::new()
+		.recursive(true)
+		.create(out_path)
+		.unwrap();
+
+	let path: PathBuf = [".", "out", &format!("{name}.asm")].iter().collect();
 	let mut file = fs::File::create(path).unwrap();
 	file.write_all(asm.as_bytes()).unwrap();
+
+	if !is_program_in_path("nasm") {
+		panic!("No nasm binary found in PATH");
+	}
+
+	process::Command::new("nasm")
+		.args(["-felf64", &format!("./out/{name}.asm")])
+		.output()
+		.expect("failed compile step");
+
+	if !is_program_in_path("ld") {
+		panic!("No ld binary found in PATH");
+	}
+
+	process::Command::new("ld")
+		.args([
+			"-s",
+			"-o",
+			&format!("./out/{name}"),
+			&format!("./out/{name}.o"),
+		])
+		.output()
+		.expect("failed linking step");
+
+	process::Command::new("rm")
+		.args([
+			"-r",
+			&format!("./out/{name}.asm"),
+			&format!("./out/{name}.o"),
+		])
+		.output()
+		.expect("failed removing artifcats step");
+}
+
+fn is_program_in_path(program: &str) -> bool {
+	if let Ok(path) = env::var("PATH") {
+		for p in path.split(":") {
+			let p_str = format!("{}/{}", p, program);
+			if fs::metadata(p_str).is_ok() {
+				return true;
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	false
 }