tailwind-components

Tailwind CSS - Component Patterns

While Tailwind is utility-first, you'll often want to extract common patterns into reusable components. This skill covers strategies for building maintainable component architectures with Tailwind.

Key Concepts

Component Extraction Strategies

There are several approaches to creating reusable components with Tailwind:

1. Template/Component Abstraction (Recommended)
2. CSS @apply Directive (Use sparingly)
3. JavaScript/TypeScript Component Classes
4. Tailwind Plugins

Template Component Abstraction

The most maintainable approach is to extract components at the template level:

// Button.tsx
interface ButtonProps {
  variant?: 'primary' | 'secondary' | 'outline'
  size?: 'sm' | 'md' | 'lg'
  children: React.ReactNode
  onClick?: () => void
}

export function Button({
  variant = 'primary',
  size = 'md',
  children,
  onClick
}: ButtonProps) {
  const baseClasses = 'font-semibold rounded transition-colors focus:ring-2 focus:ring-offset-2'

  const variantClasses = {
    primary: 'bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-600 text-white focus:ring-blue-300',
    secondary: 'bg-gray-500 hover:bg-gray-600 text-white focus:ring-gray-300',
    outline: 'border-2 border-blue-500 text-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-50 focus:ring-blue-300',
  }

  const sizeClasses = {
    sm: 'px-3 py-1.5 text-sm',
    md: 'px-4 py-2 text-base',
    lg: 'px-6 py-3 text-lg',
  }

  return (
    <button
      className={`${baseClasses} ${variantClasses[variant]} ${sizeClasses[size]}`}
      onClick={onClick}
    >
      {children}
    </button>
  )
}

Best Practices

1. Use Class Variance Authority (CVA)

For complex component variants, use cva for better type safety:

import { cva, type VariantProps } from 'class-variance-authority'

const button = cva(
  // Base classes
  'font-semibold rounded transition-colors focus:ring-2',
  {
    variants: {
      intent: {
        primary: 'bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-600 text-white',
        secondary: 'bg-gray-500 hover:bg-gray-600 text-white',
        danger: 'bg-red-500 hover:bg-red-600 text-white',
      },
      size: {
        small: 'text-sm px-3 py-1.5',
        medium: 'text-base px-4 py-2',
        large: 'text-lg px-6 py-3',
      },
      disabled: {
        true: 'opacity-50 cursor-not-allowed',
      },
    },
    compoundVariants: [
      {
        intent: 'primary',
        size: 'medium',
        className: 'uppercase',
      },
    ],
    defaultVariants: {
      intent: 'primary',
      size: 'medium',
    },
  }
)

interface ButtonProps extends VariantProps<typeof button> {
  children: React.ReactNode
}

export function Button({ intent, size, disabled, children }: ButtonProps) {
  return (
    <button className={button({ intent, size, disabled })}>
      {children}
    </button>
  )
}