How to add Tailwind to Hugo

Inside your theme folder run

npm init -y

Then install Tailwind CSS as a development dependency:

npm install -D tailwindcss

Initialize Tailwind using:

npx tailwindcss init

This creates the tailwind.config.js file. Open it in your editor, and fill the content property with your theme layout files in this way:

module.exports = {
  content: ['content/**/*.md', 'layouts/**/*.html'],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  plugins: [],
}

Now create tailwind.css file in the theme’s folder and add this:

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

Now open package.json and in the scripts section add the build and watch commands:

{
  "name": "valley",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "npx tailwindcss -i ./tailwind.css -o ./assets/style.css",
    "watch": "npx tailwindcss -i ./tailwind.css -o ./assets/style.css --watch"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "devDependencies": {
    "tailwindcss": "^3.1.4"
  }
}

Try running

npm run build

and you should see the style.css file!

| Tip: use npm run watch when working on the theme, so the changes are saved to the style.css file on every file save.

Now we can include it in our layouts, for example I put it in layouts/partials/header.html

{{ $styles := resources.Get "style.css" }}
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ $styles.RelPermalink }}">