Tailwind Template

Tailwind Template is a static site starter template that couples the Tailwind CSS utility-first framework with a Gulp build pipeline, giving you a pre-configured project for compiling custom utility classes into a minified stylesheet and packaging a plain HTML site for deployment.

What is Tailwind Template?

Tailwind Template is a GitHub-hosted boilerplate maintained by harvanchik for hand-written HTML websites. You install dependencies with pnpm install, author HTML in the root folder, and the project compiles the source file assets/styles/tailwind.css into a production-ready assets/styles/styles.css using Tailwind's JIT engine and PostCSS. It takes HTML files, Tailwind utility classes, and a tailwind.config.js as inputs, and produces a dist folder containing minified HTML, SVG, JavaScript, optimized images, and the compiled CSS.

Key Features

• Tailwind CSS JIT engine — Compiles only the utility classes actually found in your HTML files, keeping output small; styles are generated on demand during development.
• pnpm package manager — The project specifies pnpm for dependency installation, so you run pnpm install instead of npm install to generate node_modules.
• Development watch mode — pnpm run dev starts a long-running watch process that recompiles CSS whenever you save an HTML file, tailwind.css, or tailwind.config.js, without minifying the output.
• Production build script — pnpm run prod compiles CSS exactly once, using only classes found in root HTML files, and writes minified styles to assets/styles/styles.css.
• Gulp deployment build — Running gulp creates a dist folder, copies source and assets, minifies HTML, SVG, and JavaScript files, and optimizes PNG, JPG, and GIF images via gulp-image.
• Configurable output directory — The destination variable in gulpfile.js controls the build folder name (defaults to dist), so you can switch it to docs to deploy to GitHub Pages.
• VS Code workflow support — The docs recommend the Tailwind CSS Extension Pack for Intellisense and the Live Server extension for local preview; NPM scripts are also exposed in the VS Code Explorer.

Who should use Tailwind Template?

• Front-end developers who want a zero-config Tailwind setup for a static HTML site without a JavaScript framework.
• Tailwind CSS learners who need a local environment with JIT compilation and clear build scripts to experiment with utility classes.
• Static site deployers who want a repeatable Gulp build that minifies assets and outputs a ready-to-host folder for services like GitHub Pages.

What can you do with Tailwind Template?

• Build a marketing landing page — Write HTML with Tailwind utilities, run pnpm run dev for instant CSS updates, then run gulp to produce a minified dist folder.
• Deploy to GitHub Pages — Change the destination variable in gulpfile.js from dist to docs, run the prod and gulp builds, and push the docs folder.
• Create a lightweight static site — Without any front-end framework, you get a complete pipeline for CSS compilation, asset optimization, and deployment.

How does Tailwind Template work?

1. Install dependencies by running pnpm install in the project root.
2. Run pnpm run dev to start the CSS watcher; it recompiles on every save of HTML, tailwind.css, or tailwind.config.js.
3. To force a full recompile, save tailwind.css again — development builds only add classes, they do not remove unused ones until a full rebuild.
4. For production, run pnpm run prod to compile minified CSS once.
5. Run gulp to build the dist folder with minified and optimized files.

FAQ

Is Tailwind Template free to use?

Yes, the template is hosted on GitHub under a license (see the LICENSE file) and can be cloned and used by anyone. No payment is mentioned in the documentation.

What do I need to run Tailwind Template?

You need Node.js with pnpm installed. For the recommended workflow, install the Tailwind CSS Extension Pack and Live Server extensions in VS Code. Then run pnpm install to get all dependencies.

How do I change where the production files are output?

Edit the variable named destination near the top of gulpfile.js. It defaults to dist; changing it to docs is a common way to prepare a project for GitHub Pages.

Does the development build minify CSS?

No. pnpm run dev outputs unminified CSS while watching for changes. Only pnpm run prod and the Gulp build produce minified CSS.

Pricing

Tailwind Template is free to use as an open-source static site starter repository on GitHub.