Tailwind CSS Integration

So you want to use Tailwind CSS in your TanStack Start project?

This guide will help you use Tailwind CSS in your TanStack Start project.

Tailwind CSS Version 4 (Latest)

The latest version of Tailwind CSS is 4. And it has some configuration changes that majorly differ from Tailwind CSS Version 3. It's easier and recommended to set up Tailwind CSS Version 4 in a TanStack Start project with either Vite or Rsbuild.

Install Tailwind CSS

Install Tailwind CSS and the integration for your build tool.

npm install tailwindcss @tailwindcss/vite

npm install tailwindcss @tailwindcss/postcss postcss

Configure Tailwind CSS

Add Tailwind CSS to your build tool configuration.

import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import tsConfigPaths from 'vite-tsconfig-paths'
import { tanstackStart } from '@tanstack/react-start/plugin/vite'
import tailwindcss from '@tailwindcss/vite'
import viteReact from '@vitejs/plugin-react'

export default defineConfig({
  server: {
    port: 3000,
  },
  plugins: [tsConfigPaths(), tanstackStart(), viteReact(), tailwindcss()],
})

import { defineConfig } from '@rsbuild/core'
import { pluginReact } from '@rsbuild/plugin-react'
import { tanstackStart } from '@tanstack/react-start/plugin/rsbuild'

export default defineConfig({
  server: {
    port: 3000,
  },
  plugins: [pluginReact(), tanstackStart()],
})

export default {
  plugins: {
    '@tailwindcss/postcss': {},
  },
}

Import Tailwind in your CSS file

You need to create a CSS file to configure Tailwind CSS instead of the configuration file in version 4. You can do this by creating a src/styles/app.css file or name it whatever you want.

/* src/styles/app.css */
@import 'tailwindcss' source('../');

Import the CSS file in your __root.tsx file

Import the CSS file in your __root.tsx file.

// src/routes/__root.tsx
/// <reference types="vite/client" />
// other imports...

import appCss from '../styles/app.css?url'

export const Route = createRootRoute({
  head: () => ({
    meta: [
      // your meta tags and site config
    ],
    links: [{ rel: 'stylesheet', href: appCss }],
    // other head config
  }),
  component: RootComponent,
})

// src/routes/__root.tsx
import { createRootRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router'
import '../styles/app.css'

export const Route = createRootRoute({
  head: () => ({
    meta: [
      // your meta tags and site config
    ],
    // other head config
  }),
  component: RootComponent,
})

Use Tailwind CSS anywhere in your project

You can now use Tailwind CSS anywhere in your project.

// src/routes/index.tsx
import { createFileRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router'

export const Route = createFileRoute('/')({
  component: Home,
})

function Home() {
  return <div className="bg-red-500 text-white p-4">Hello World</div>
}

That's it! You can now use Tailwind CSS anywhere in your project 🎉.

Tailwind CSS Version 3 (Legacy)

If you are want to use Tailwind CSS Version 3, you can use the following steps.

Install Tailwind CSS

Install Tailwind CSS and it's peer dependencies.

npm install -D tailwindcss@3 postcss autoprefixer

Then generate the Tailwind and PostCSS configuration files.

npx tailwindcss init -p

Configure your template paths

Add the paths to all of your template files in the tailwind.config.js file.

// tailwind.config.js
/** @type {import('tailwindcss').Config} */
export default {
  content: ['./src/**/*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx}'],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  plugins: [],
}

Add the Tailwind directives to your CSS file

Add the @tailwind directives for each of Tailwind's layers to your src/styles/app.css file.

/* src/styles/app.css */
@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;