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Usage

Do I have to install the Tailwind CLI?

No. The management commands of this library handle the download and installation of the Tailwind CLI. You don't have to deal with this. But you can configure the installation location and the version of the CLI you want to use. Take a look at the settings section.

Do I have to create my own tailwind.config.js?

No. The management commands also take care of this step. If no tailwind.config.js is present in your project, a new one with sane defaults will be created. Afterwards this file will be used and be customized by you. The default location for the file is the BASE_DIR of your project, but you can change this. Take a look at the settings section.

During development

Use the debug server of this library

The easiest way to use this library during development is to start the debug server provided by it.

python manage.py tailwind runserver

Optionally you can use runserver_plus which requires django-extensions to be installed 

python manage.py tailwind runserver_plus

This command starts two processes. One is the standard debug server of Django which is normally started by running python manage.py runserver or runserver_plus. The other is the Tailwind CLI in watch mode by running python manage.py tailwind watch.

Two main advantages of using runserver_plus are the following:

  • Debug server uses Werkzeug instead of the standard WSGI server for more debugging support.
  • Can also use HTTPS with a self-signed certificate for local development.

Use the standard debug server along with Tailwind CLI in watch mode

If you prefer to use the standard debug server or have written your own extended debug server, you have to start two seperate processes in different shells or with some kind of process manager. One is of course your debug server and the other is the Tailwind CLI in watch mode, which can be started with the following management command.

python manage.py tailwind watch

In your build process

To create an optimized production built of the stylesheet run the following command. Afterwards you are ready to deploy. Take care the this command is run before python manage.py collectstatic.

python manage.py tailwind build