Get started with Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS works by scanning all of your HTML files, JavaScript components, and any other templates for class names, generating the corresponding styles and then writing them to a static CSS file.

It’s fast, flexible, and reliable — with zero-runtime.

Installation

Installing Tailwind CLI

The simplest and fastest way to get up and running with Tailwind CSS from scratch is with the Tailwind CLI tool. The CLI is also available as a standalone executable if you want to use it without installing Node.js.

Install Tailwind CSS
Install tailwindcss via npm, and create your tailwind.config.js file.

Terminal
```
npm install -D tailwindcssnpx tailwindcss init
```

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/**/*.{html,js}"],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  plugins: [],
}

Add the Tailwind directives to your CSS
Add the @tailwind directives for each of Tailwind’s layers to your main CSS file.

src/input.css
```
@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;
```
Start the Tailwind CLI build process
Run the CLI tool to scan your template files for classes and build your CSS.

Terminal
```
npx tailwindcss -i ./src/input.css -o ./dist/output.css --watch
```

Start using Tailwind in your HTML

Add your compiled CSS file to the <head> and start using Tailwind’s utility classes to style your content.

src/index.html

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <link href="/dist/output.css" rel="stylesheet">
</head>
<body>
  <h1 class="text-3xl font-bold underline">
    Hello world!
  </h1>
</body>
</html>