Question

Setting up Tailwind CSS in a Create React App project.

We highly recommend using Vite, Next.js, Remix, or Parcel instead of Create React App. They provide an equivalent or better developer experience but with more flexibility, giving you more control over how Tailwind and PostCSS are configured. Create React App does not support custom PostCSS configurations, so you can't use

Create React App does not support custom PostCSS configurations and is incompatible with many important tools in the PostCSS ecosystem, like `postcss-import`.

We highly recommend using Vite, Parcel, Next.js, or Remix instead of Create React App. They provide an equivalent or better developer experience but with more flexibility, giving you more control over how Tailwind and PostCSS are configured.

1. Create your project

   Start by creating a new React project with Create React App v5.0+ if you don't have one already set up.

   Terminal

   npx create-react-app my-projectcd my-project

2. Install Tailwind CSS

   Install tailwindcss via npm, and then run the init command to generate your tailwind.config.js file.

   Terminal

   npm install -D tailwindcssnpx tailwindcss init

3. Configure your template paths

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

   tailwind.config.js

   /** @type {import('tailwindcss').Config} */
   module.exports = {
     content: [
       "./src/**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}",
     ],
     theme: {
       extend: {},
     },
     plugins: [],
   }
   

4. Add the Tailwind directives to your CSS

   Add the @tailwind directives for each of Tailwind’s layers to your ./src/index.css file.

   index.css

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

5. Start your build process

   Run your build process with npm run start.

   Terminal

   npm run start

6. Start using Tailwind in your project

   Start using Tailwind’s utility classes to style your content.

   App.js

   export default function App() {
     return (
       <h1 className="text-3xl font-bold underline">
         Hello world!
       </h1>
     )
   }