diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0ce2d30e7e4e6666c706618f3091ffc146adcea6..e3d0deec433b7dc31ab8989b3852f1b0960710a3 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -68,6 +68,17 @@ If working on just the viewer, ``npm run watch-viewer`` will provide shorter com
 
 Debug/production mode in browsers can be turned on/off during runtime by calling ``setMolStarDebugMode(true/false, true/false)`` from the dev console.
 
+### Cleaning and forcing a full rebuild
+    npm run clean
+
+Wipes the `build` and `lib` directories and `.tsbuildinfo` files.
+
+    npm run rebuild
+
+Runs the cleanup script prior to building the project, forcing a full rebuild of the project.
+
+Use these commands to resolve occassional build failures which may arise after some dependency updates. Once done, `npm run build` should work again. Note that full rebuilds take more to complete.
+
 ### Build for production:
     NODE_ENV=production npm run build
 
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index f2300a8f8c8d2823df31e4dae1a17877549fced8..9fa802f171d0b847794b2e240fa4c3128719936c 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
     "test": "npm run lint && jest",
     "jest": "jest",
     "build": "npm run build-tsc && npm run build-extra && npm run build-webpack",
+    "clean": "node ./scripts/clean.js",
+    "rebuild": "npm run clean && npm run build",
     "build-viewer": "npm run build-tsc && npm run build-extra && npm run build-webpack-viewer",
     "build-tsc": "concurrently \"tsc --incremental\" \"tsc --build tsconfig.commonjs.json --incremental\"",
     "build-extra": "cpx \"src/**/*.{scss,html,ico}\" lib/",
@@ -36,7 +38,7 @@
     "volume-server-test": "node lib/commonjs/servers/volume/server.js --idMap em 'test/${id}.mdb' --defaultPort 1336",
     "plugin-state": "node lib/commonjs/servers/plugin-state/index.js --working-folder ./build/state --port 1339",
     "preversion": "npm run test",
-    "version": "npm run build",
+    "version": "npm run rebuild",
     "postversion": "git push && git push --tags"
   },
   "files": [
diff --git a/scripts/clean.js b/scripts/clean.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d1a61e9eccb1449e6c19cba674c3656fda66c9bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/clean.js
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (c) 2021 mol* contributors, licensed under MIT, See LICENSE file for more info.
+ *
+ * @author Michal Malý <malym@ibt.cas.cz>
+ */
+
+const fs = require('fs');
+const path = require('path');
+
+const toClean = [
+    path.resolve(__dirname, '../build'),
+    path.resolve(__dirname, '../lib'),
+    path.resolve(__dirname, '../tsconfig.tsbuildinfo'),
+];
+
+toClean.forEach(ph => {
+    if (fs.existsSync(ph))
+        fs.rm(ph, { recursive: true }, err => { if (err) console.warn(`Failed to delete ${ph}: ${err}`); });
+});