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 tailwind.config.js?

No. The management commands also take care of this step. If no tailwind.config.js 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 the BASE_DIR 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]

  Start the Django development server and the Tailwind CLI in watch mode.

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.
  --help         Show this message and exit.

runserver_plus

Run python manage.py tailwind runserver to start the extended debug server from the django-extensions package in parallel to a tailwind watcher process. It offers some nice additions an interactive debug console, SSL support and so on.

Usage: ./manage.py tailwind runserver_plus [OPTIONS] [ADDRPORT]

  Start the django-extensions runserver_plus development server and the
  Tailwind CLI in watch mode.

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.
  --ipdb                Drop into ipdb shell at the start of any view.
  --pm                  Drop into (i)pdb shell if an exception is raised in a
                        view.
  --print-sql           Print SQL queries as they're executed.
  --print-sql-location  Show location in code where SQL query generated from.
  --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.
  --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.
  --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 PyCharm

PyCharm is a great IDE, but its Tailwind CSS plugin doesn't work well with the standalone CLI this package uses. Luckily, there is a workaround for this.

install_pycharm_workaround

Run python manage.py tailwind install_pycharm_workaround to install the workaround in your project.

Update .gitignore file

Update your .gitignore manually so that it exludes the created package.json file and the node_modules directory, that is created by this management command.

package.json
node_modules/

remove_pycharm_workaround

Run python manage.py tailwind install_pycharm_workaround to remove the workaround from your project.

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