Tailwind CSS Development

When to Apply

Activate this skill when:

• Adding styles to components or pages
• Working with responsive design
• Implementing dark mode
• Extracting repeated patterns into components
• Debugging spacing or layout issues

Documentation

Use search-docs for detailed Tailwind CSS v3 patterns and documentation.

Basic Usage

• Use Tailwind CSS classes to style HTML. Check and follow existing Tailwind conventions in the project before introducing new patterns.
• Offer to extract repeated patterns into components that match the project’s conventions (e.g., Blade, JSX, Vue).
• 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 v3 Specifics

• Always use Tailwind CSS v3 and verify you’re using only classes it supports.
• Configuration is done in the tailwind.config.js file.
• Import using @tailwind directives:

@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;

Spacing

When listing items, use gap utilities for spacing; don’t use margins.

<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:

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

Common Patterns

Flexbox Layout

<div class="flex items-center justify-between gap-4">
    <div>Left content</div>
    <div>Right content</div>
</div>

Grid Layout

<div class="grid grid-cols-1 md:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3 gap-6">
    <div>Card 1</div>
    <div>Card 2</div>
    <div>Card 3</div>
</div>

Verification

1. Check browser for visual rendering
2. Test responsive breakpoints
3. Verify dark mode if project uses it

Common Pitfalls

• Using margins for spacing between siblings instead of gap utilities
• Forgetting to add dark mode variants when the project uses dark mode
• Not checking existing project conventions before adding new utilities
• Overusing inline styles when Tailwind classes would suffice