Usage

Do I have to install the Tailwind CLI?

No. The management commands of this library handle the download and installation of the Tailwind CLI. You don't have to deal with this. But you can configure the installation location and the version of the CLI you want to use. Take a look at the settings section.

Do I have to create my own css/source.css for Tailwind 4.x?

No. The management commands also take care of this step. If no css/source.css is present in your project, a new one with sane defaults will be created. Afterwards this file will be used and be customized by you. The default location for the file is first folder from the STATICFILES_DIRS of your project, but you can change this. Take a look at the settings section.

Management commands

build

Run python manage.py tailwind build to create an optimized production built of the stylesheet. Afterwards you are ready to deploy. Take care the this command is run before python manage.py collectstatic in your build process.

download_cli

Run python manage.py tailwind download_cli to just download the CLI. This commands downloads the correct version of the CLI for your platform and stores it in the path configured by the TAILWIND_CLI_PATH setting.

list_templates

Run python manage.py tailwind list_templates to find all templates in your django project. This is handy for a setup where you dynamically build the list of files being analyzed by tailwindcss.

remove_cli

Run python manage.py tailwind remove_cli to remove the installed cli.

runserver

Run python manage.py tailwind runserver to start the classic Django debug server in parallel to a tailwind watcher process.

Usage: manage.py tailwind runserver
           [OPTIONS] [ADDRPORT]

  Run the development server with Tailwind CSS CLI in watch mode.

  If django-extensions is installed along with this library, this command runs
  the runserver_plus command from django-extensions. Otherwise it runs the
  default runserver command.

Arguments:
  [ADDRPORT]  Optional port number, or ipaddr:port

Options:
  -6, --ipv6                      Tells Django to use an IPv6 address.
  --nothreading                   Tells Django to NOT use threading.
  --nostatic                      Tells Django to NOT automatically serve
                                  static files at STATIC_URL.
  --noreload                      Tells Django to NOT use the auto-reloader.
  --skip-checks                   Skip system checks.
  --pdb                           Drop into pdb shell at the start of any
                                  view. (Requires django-extensions.)
  --ipdb                          Drop into ipdb shell at the start of any
                                  view. (Requires django-extensions.)
  --pm                            Drop into (i)pdb shell if an exception is
                                  raised in a view. (Requires django-
                                  extensions.)
  --print-sql                     Print SQL queries as they're executed.
                                  (Requires django-extensions.)
  --print-sql-location            Show location in code where SQL query
                                  generated from. (Requires django-
                                  extensions.)
  --cert-file TEXT                SSL .crt file path. If not provided path
                                  from --key-file will be selected. Either
                                  --cert-file or --key-file must be provided
                                  to use SSL. (Requires django-extensions.)
  --key-file TEXT                 SSL .key file path. If not provided path
                                  from --cert-file will be selected. Either
                                  --cert-file or --key-file must be provided
                                  to use SSL. (Requires django-extensions.)
  --force-default-runserver / --no-force-default-runserver
                                  Force the use of the default runserver
                                  command even if django-extensions is
                                  installed.   [default: no-force-default-
                                  runserver]
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

watch

Run python manage.py tailwind watch to just start a tailwind watcher process if you prefer to start your debug server in a seperate shell or prefer a different solution than runserver or runserver_plus.

Use with Docker Compose

When used in the watch mode, the Tailwind CLI requires a TTY-enabled environment to function correctly. In a Docker Compose setup, ensure that the container executing the Tailwind style rebuild command (either python manage.py tailwind runserver or python manage.py tailwind watch, as noted above) is configured with the tty: true setting in your docker-compose.yml.

web:
  command: python manage.py tailwind runserver
  tty: true

# or

tailwind-sidecar:
  command: python manage.py tailwind watch
  tty: true

Use with daisyUI

If you plan to use daisyUI, there is an easy way to solve this with this library.

TAILWIND_CLI_USE_DAISY_UI = True

Setting this, the library switches from using the default TailwindCSS CLI to the one provided by Andris Dobičinaitis and his tailwind-cli-extra project. It also causes the library to create a proper default config that activates the daisyUI plugin.

But of course you can do it manually, too. Just configure a repository where the library should pull the CLI from and activate the daisyUI support.

TAILWIND_CLI_SRC_REPO = "dobicinaitis/tailwind-cli-extra"
TAILWIND_CLI_ASSET_NAME = "tailwindcss-extra"
TAILWIND_CLI_USE_DAISY_UI = True

Or provide your custom configuration, too.

TAILWIND_CLI_SRC_REPO = "dobicinaitis/tailwind-cli-extra"
TAILWIND_CLI_ASSET_NAME = "tailwindcss-extra"
TAILWIND_CLI_SRC_CSS = "etc/source.css"

Use with WhiteNoise

If you are using WhiteNoise to serve your static assets, you must not put your custom Tailwind configuration file inside any of the directories for static files. WhiteNoise stumbles across the @import "tailwindcss"; statement, because it can't resolve it.

If you want to use a custom configuration for Tailwind CSS, put it somewhere else in the project.