Install Tailwind CSS with Vue 3 and Vite

Creating your project

Start by creating a new Vite project if you don't have one set up already.

npm init @vitejs/app my-project
cd my-project

Next, install Vite's front-end dependencies using npm:

npm install

Setting up Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS requires Node.js 12.13.0 or higher.

Install Tailwind via npm

Install Tailwind and its peer-dependencies using npm:

npm install -D tailwindcss@latest postcss@latest autoprefixer@latest

Create your configuration files

Next, generate your tailwind.config.js and postcss.config.js files:

npx tailwindcss init -p

This will create a minimal tailwind.config.js file at the root of your project:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  purge: [],
  darkMode: false, // or 'media' or 'class'
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  variants: {
    extend: {},
  },
  plugins: [],
}

Learn more about configuring Tailwind in the configuration documentation.

It will also create a postcss.config.js file that includes tailwindcss and autoprefixer already configured:

// postcss.config.js
module.exports = {
  plugins: {
    tailwindcss: {},
    autoprefixer: {},
  },
}

If you're planning to use any other PostCSS plugins, you should read our documentation on using PostCSS as your preprocessor for more details about the best way to order them alongside Tailwind.

Configure Tailwind to remove unused styles in production

In your tailwind.config.js file, configure the purge option with the paths to all of your pages and components so Tailwind can tree-shake unused styles in production builds:

  // tailwind.config.js
  module.exports = {
-   purge: [],
+   purge: ['./index.html', './src/**/*.{vue,js,ts,jsx,tsx}'],
    darkMode: false, // or 'media' or 'class'
    theme: {
      extend: {},
    },
    variants: {
      extend: {},
    },
    plugins: [],
  }

Read our separate guide on optimizing for production to learn more about tree-shaking unused styles for best performance.

Include Tailwind in your CSS

Create the ./src/index.css file and use the @tailwind directive to include Tailwind's base, components, and utilities styles, replacing the original file contents:

/* ./src/index.css */
@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;

Tailwind will swap these directives out at build-time with all of the styles it generates based on your configured design system.

Read our documentation on adding base styles, extracting components, and adding new utilities for best practices on extending Tailwind with your own custom CSS.

Finally, ensure your CSS file is being imported in your ./src/main.js file:

// src/main.js
import { createApp } from 'vue'
import App from './App.vue'
import './index.css'

createApp(App).mount('#app')

You're finished! Now when you run npm run dev, Tailwind CSS will be ready to use in your Vue 3 and Vite project.

Next learn about the utility-first workflow →