Styles applications using Tailwind CSS v3 utilities. Activates when adding styles, restyling components, working with gradients, spacing, layout, flex, grid, responsive design, dark mode, colors, typography, or borders; or when the user mentions CSS, styling, classes, Tailwind, restyle, hero section, cards, buttons, or any visual/UI changes.
tailwindcss-development follows the SKILL.md standard. Use the install command to add it to your agent stack.
---
name: tailwindcss-development
description: >-
Styles applications using Tailwind CSS v3 utilities. Activates when adding styles, restyling components,
working with gradients, spacing, layout, flex, grid, responsive design, dark mode, colors,
typography, or borders; or when the user mentions CSS, styling, classes, Tailwind, restyle,
hero section, cards, buttons, or any visual/UI changes.
---
# Tailwind CSS Development
## When to Apply
Activate this skill when:
- Adding styles to components or pages
- Working with responsive design
- Implementing dark mode
- Extracting repeated patterns into components
- Debugging spacing or layout issues
## Documentation
Use `search-docs` for detailed Tailwind CSS v3 patterns and documentation.
## Basic Usage
- Use Tailwind CSS classes to style HTML. Check and follow existing Tailwind conventions in the project before introducing new patterns.
- Offer to extract repeated patterns into components that match the project's conventions (e.g., Blade, JSX, Vue).
- Consider class placement, order, priority, and defaults. Remove redundant classes, add classes to parent or child elements carefully to reduce repetition, and group elements logically.
## Tailwind CSS v3 Specifics
- Always use Tailwind CSS v3 and verify you're using only classes it supports.
- Configuration is done in the `tailwind.config.js` file.
- Import using `@tailwind` directives:
<code-snippet name="v3 Import Syntax" lang="css">
@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;
</code-snippet>
## Spacing
When listing items, use gap utilities for spacing; don't use margins.
<code-snippet name="Gap Utilities" lang="html">
<div class="flex gap-8">
<div>Item 1</div>
<div>Item 2</div>
</div>
</code-snippet>
## Dark Mode
If existing pages and components support dark mode, new pages and components must support it the same way, typically using the `dark:` variant:
<code-snippet name="Dark Mode" lang="html">
<div class="bg-white dark:bg-gray-900 text-gray-900 dark:text-white">
Content adapts to color scheme
</div>
</code-snippet>
## Common Patterns
### Flexbox Layout
<code-snippet name="Flexbox Layout" lang="html">
<div class="flex items-center justify-between gap-4">
<div>Left content</div>
<div>Right content</div>
</div>
</code-snippet>
### Grid Layout
<code-snippet name="Grid Layout" lang="html">
<div class="grid grid-cols-1 md:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3 gap-6">
<div>Card 1</div>
<div>Card 2</div>
<div>Card 3</div>
</div>
</code-snippet>
## Verification
1. Check browser for visual rendering
2. Test responsive breakpoints
3. Verify dark mode if project uses it
## Common Pitfalls
- Using margins for spacing between siblings instead of gap utilities
- Forgetting to add dark mode variants when the project uses dark mode
- Not checking existing project conventions before adding new utilities
- Overusing inline styles when Tailwind classes would suffice