Tailwind CSS .NET Tool

A .NET tool to install the standalone Tailwind CSS CLI, and build or watch a CSS file.

Usage

Installation

• Local from a project directory: dotnet new tool-manifest then dotnet tool install --local AustinS.TailwindCssTool
• Global: dotnet tool install --global AustinS.TailwindCssTool

Commands

You can use dotnet tool run tailwindcss or the shorthand dotnet tailwindcss.

• dotnet tailwindcss build Generate Tailwind CSS output.
  • -i or --input The input CSS file path.
  • -o or --output The output CSS file path.
  • (Optional) -m or --minify Whether to minify the output CSS.
  • (Optional) -t or --tailwind-version The version of Tailwind CSS to install (e.g. v4.0.0, v3.4.17). If not specified, the latest is installed.
• dotnet tailwindcss watch Watch for changes and generate Tailwind CSS output on any change.
  • -i or --input The input CSS file path.
  • -o or --output The output CSS file path.
  • (Optional) -m or --minify Whether to minify the output CSS.
  • (Optional) -t or --tailwind-version The version of Tailwind CSS to install (e.g. v4.0.0, v3.4.17). If not specified, the latest is installed.
• dotnet tailwindcss clean Clean downloaded Tailwind CSS binaries.

If the latest or specified Tailwind CSS version is already installed on the system, it will be used. If there are any failures fetching a version, the latest installed version, if any, will be used.

Input CSS File for Tailwind CSS

For Tailwind CSS v4+, you can create a CSS file containing the following in your web project:

@import "tailwindcss";

You can then use the path of this file as the input argument for the commands above.

Generate Tailwind CSS File on Build

Here is an example target you can place in your web project's csproj file to run the build command on every build:

<Target Name="GenerateTailwindCss" AfterTargets="BeforeBuild">
    <Exec Command="dotnet tool restore"/>
    <Exec Command="dotnet tool run tailwindcss build -t v4.1.18 -m -i <PATH TO YOUR TAILWIND CSS FILE> -o <PATH THE OUTPUT CSS FILE WILL SAVE TO>"/>
</Target>

It is recommended to set the Tailwind CSS version so that builds will be consistent across environments and not commit the output file (instead, have that generated during CI). Be sure to change the input and output paths. See the Tailwind CSS repo to find out the latest standalone CLI version number.

Development Watcher

See the ExampleWebApp in the repository for an example of how to create a background service that uses the tool to watch for style changes during development.