css.TailwindCSS

Processes the given resource with the Tailwind CSS CLI.

Syntax

css.TailwindCSS [OPTIONS] RESOURCE

Returns

resource.Resource

New in v0.128.0

Use the css.TailwindCSS function to process your Tailwind CSS files. This function uses the Tailwind CSS CLI to:

Scan your templates for Tailwind CSS utility class usage.
Compile those utility classes into standard CSS.
Generate an optimized CSS output file.

Setup

Step 1

Install the Tailwind CSS CLI v4.0 or later:

npm install --save-dev tailwindcss @tailwindcss/cli

The TailwindCSS CLI is also available as a standalone executable if you want to use it without installing Node.js.

Step 2

Add this to your site configuration:

build:
  buildStats:
    enable: true
  cachebusters:
  - source: assets/notwatching/hugo_stats\.json
    target: css
  - source: (postcss|tailwind)\.config\.js
    target: css
module:
  mounts:
  - source: assets
    target: assets
  - disableWatch: true
    source: hugo_stats.json
    target: assets/notwatching/hugo_stats.json

[build]
  [build.buildStats]
    enable = true
  [[build.cachebusters]]
    source = 'assets/notwatching/hugo_stats\.json'
    target = 'css'
  [[build.cachebusters]]
    source = '(postcss|tailwind)\.config\.js'
    target = 'css'
[module]
  [[module.mounts]]
    source = 'assets'
    target = 'assets'
  [[module.mounts]]
    disableWatch = true
    source = 'hugo_stats.json'
    target = 'assets/notwatching/hugo_stats.json'

{
   "build": {
      "buildStats": {
         "enable": true
      },
      "cachebusters": [
         {
            "source": "assets/notwatching/hugo_stats\\.json",
            "target": "css"
         },
         {
            "source": "(postcss|tailwind)\\.config\\.js",
            "target": "css"
         }
      ]
   },
   "module": {
      "mounts": [
         {
            "source": "assets",
            "target": "assets"
         },
         {
            "disableWatch": true,
            "source": "hugo_stats.json",
            "target": "assets/notwatching/hugo_stats.json"
         }
      ]
   }
}

Step 3

Create a CSS entry file:

assets/css/main.css

@import "tailwindcss";
@source "hugo_stats.json";

Tailwind CSS respects .gitignore files. This means that if hugo_stats.json is listed in your .gitignore file, Tailwind CSS will ignore it. To make hugo_stats.json available to Tailwind CSS you must explicitly source it as shown in the example above.

Step 4

Create a partial template to process the CSS with the Tailwind CSS CLI:

layouts/partials/css.html

{{ with (templates.Defer (dict "key" "global")) }}
  {{ with resources.Get "css/main.css" }}
    {{ $opts := dict
      "minify" hugo.IsProduction
      "inlineImports" true
    }}
    {{ with . | css.TailwindCSS $opts }}
      {{ if hugo.IsProduction }}
        {{ with . | fingerprint }}
          <link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ .RelPermalink }}" integrity="{{ .Data.Integrity }}" crossorigin="anonymous">
        {{ end }}
      {{ else }}
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">
      {{ end }}
    {{ end }}
  {{ end }}
{{ end }}

Step 5

Call the partial template from your base template:

layouts/default/baseof.html

<head>
  ...
  {{ partialCached "css.html" . }}
  ...
<head>

Step 6

Optionally create a tailwind.config.js file in the root of your project as shown below. This is necessary if you use the Tailwind CSS IntelliSense extension for Visual Studio Code.

tailwind.config.js

/*
This file is present to satisfy a requirement of the Tailwind CSS IntelliSense
extension for Visual Studio Code.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=bradlc.vscode-tailwindcss

The rest of this file is intentionally empty.
*/

Options

minify: (bool) Whether to optimize and minify the output. Default is false.
optimize: (bool) Whether to optimize the output without minifying. Default is false.
inlineImports: (bool) Whether to enable inlining of @import statements. Inlining is performed recursively, but currently once only per file. It is not possible to import the same file in different scopes (root, media query, etc.). Note that this import routine does not care about the CSS specification, so you can have @import statements anywhere in the file. Default is false.
skipInlineImportsNotFound: (bool) When inlineImports is enabled, we fail the build if an import cannot be resolved. Enable this option to allow the build to continue and leave the import statement in place. Note that the inline importer does not process URL location or imports with media queries, so those will be left as-is even without enabling this option. Default is false.

Last updated: February 11, 2025 : content: Reformat css.TailwindCSS setup steps (c7265041f)

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