diff --git a/.hgignore b/.hgignore
--- a/.hgignore
+++ b/.hgignore
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ syntax: regexp
 ^\.coverage$
 ^kallithea/front-end/node_modules$
 ^kallithea/front-end/package-lock\.json$
+^kallithea/front-end/tmp$
 ^kallithea/public/css/style\.css(\.map)?$
-^kallithea/public/css/pygments.css$
 ^theme\.less$
 ^kallithea\.db$
 ^test\.db$
diff --git a/kallithea/bin/kallithea_cli_front_end.py b/kallithea/bin/kallithea_cli_front_end.py
--- a/kallithea/bin/kallithea_cli_front_end.py
+++ b/kallithea/bin/kallithea_cli_front_end.py
@@ -43,8 +43,12 @@ def front_end_build(install_deps, genera
         subprocess.check_call(['npm', 'install'], cwd=front_end_dir)
 
     if generate:
+        tmp_dir = os.path.join(front_end_dir, 'tmp')
+        if not os.path.isdir(tmp_dir):
+            os.mkdir(tmp_dir)
+
         click.echo("Generating CSS")
-        with open(os.path.join(public_dir, 'pygments.css'), 'w') as f:
+        with open(os.path.join(tmp_dir, 'pygments.css'), 'w') as f:
             subprocess.check_call(['pygmentize',
                     '-S', 'default',
                     '-f', 'html',
diff --git a/kallithea/public/less/main.less b/kallithea/public/less/main.less
--- a/kallithea/public/less/main.less
+++ b/kallithea/public/less/main.less
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 @import (inline) "3rd-party/dataTables.bootstrap.css";
 @import (less) "../js/select2/select2.css";
 @import (less) "../js/select2/select2-bootstrap.css";
-@import (less) "../css/pygments.css";
+@import (less) "tmp/pygments.css";
 @import (less) "../fontello/css/kallithea.css";
 
 /* kallithea styles */