Tailwindcss Development

Tailwind CSS development

Documentation

Use search-docs for detailed Tailwind CSS v4 patterns and documentation.

Basic usage

• Use Tailwind CSS classes to style HTML. Before introducing new patterns, check and follow the project's existing Tailwind conventions.

• Offer to extract repeated patterns into components that match the project's conventions, such as Blade, JSX, or Vue components.

• Consider class placement, order, priority, and defaults. Remove redundant classes, add classes to parent or child elements carefully to reduce repetition, and group elements logically.

Tailwind CSS v4 specifics

• Always use Tailwind CSS v4 and avoid deprecated utilities.

• corePlugins is not supported in Tailwind v4.

CSS-first configuration

In Tailwind v4, you configure Tailwind in CSS with the @theme directive. You don't need a separate tailwind.config.js file:

<!-- CSS-First Config -->

@theme {
  --color-brand: oklch(0.72 0.11 178);
}

Import syntax

In Tailwind v4, import Tailwind with a regular CSS @import statement instead of the @tailwind directives used in v3:

<!-- v4 Import Syntax -->

- @tailwind base;
- @tailwind components;
- @tailwind utilities;
+ @import "tailwindcss";

Replaced utilities

Tailwind v4 removed deprecated utilities. Use the replacements shown below. For opacity, drop the *-opacity-* class and append the value as a modifier on the existing color: bg-blue-500 bg-opacity-50 becomes bg-blue-500/50, text-white text-opacity-75 becomes text-white/75.

Spacing

Use gap utilities instead of margins for spacing between siblings:

<!-- Gap Utilities -->

<div class="flex gap-8">
    <div>Item 1</div>
    <div>Item 2</div>
</div>

Dark mode

If existing pages and components support dark mode, new pages and components must support it the same way, typically using the dark: variant:

<!-- Dark Mode -->

<div class="bg-white dark:bg-gray-900 text-gray-900 dark:text-white">
    Content adapts to color scheme
</div>

Common pitfalls

• Using deprecated v3 utilities, such as bg-opacity-* and flex-shrink-*

• Using @tailwind directives instead of @import "tailwindcss"

• Using tailwind.config.js instead of the CSS @theme directive

• Using margins for spacing between siblings instead of gap utilities

• Forgetting to add dark mode variants when the project uses dark mode