Some templates shown by `manage.py tailwind list_templates` are not scanned

[mjmare]

I'm developing a package (I'll call it extra for now) in parallel to a django project (so they are separate packages). The extra package is installed (editable) into the Django project as a django app.
The extra package includes templates with tailwind classes, so I want them scanned.

When doing a manage.py tailwind list_templates all templates of the extra package are listed. However there are not scanned by tailwind watch. The templates in the django app are scanned correctly.

The only way to have it work is to use a custom tailwind_source.css file:

@import "tailwindcss";
@plugin "daisyui";

@source "../../../../../src/extra/templates/**/*.html"; 

/* Safelist DaisyUI form classes */
@source inline("input input-bordered input-primary input-error select select-bordered textarea textarea-bordered label checkbox radio");

(Note that the extra package is not within the django project files. )
This works but is a bit of a monstrosity.

[oliverandrich]

I think there is no way to work around it. Without this @source definition, it only searches starting from the root directory of the project and doesn't see, what is outside of the project in the extra package.

The only solution I see is to add an extra git subrepo within your main project. This way, you can develop them as separate packages, and also live without the @source abnormity.

I don't see, how I can help you a change in this package. Do you have suggestions?

[mjmare]

if I remove the line (@source "../../../../../src/extra/templates/**/*.html";) manage tailwind list_templates still shows the extra package's templates. So I would have expected them to be parsed by the tailwind cli.

BTW if possible, it would be great if the manage.py tailwind watch --verbose command would show the changed files.

[oliverandrich]

Ah, I see the problem. The list_templates traverses the project and the included apps. It was meant to be used to generate sane @source definitions. But it is not used out of the box, because the discovery of templates is 100% the job of the tailwind cli, which includes its own watchers.

[mjmare]

@oliverandrich what exactly is the purpose of the manage tailwind list_templates command? From your answer I extrapolate that it's output is not used for tailwind parsing. Is that correct?

I can think of this approach: By default you generate a tailwind_source.css file? Could you create a config option that lets the user specify installed packages to be watched as well as the main app. From the specified packages you grab the template dirs and have them watched.

Or even more brute force approach: watch all template dirs found by the list_templates command.

All a bit hand wavy, I realise.

[oliverandrich]

list_templates is a legacy command from the version 3.x times, when you had to configure the search directories in tailwind.config.js. With the launch of Tailwind CSS 4.x, it is not necessary because the Tailwind CSS CLI finds all files and templates within the current working directory itself. Actually, it would be best to delete this command.

Basically, the creation of the config file sounds doable. But not the part to cherry-pick the apps to crawl. The project either creates a config file, that it manages completely and recreates more or less all the time. Or you have to manually create it on your own. For the automatic part, I can see an option to scan the apps and add them. For the manual part, we might need a new management command that creates such a config for further editing. But then you would have to add new apps manually too.

[mjmare]

Thx for the list_templates explanation.
I'd say that adding the names of some dependencies is preferable over fragile (relative) paths.
A management command to generate a config file sounds good.

[oliverandrich]

Landed both parts on main.

An opt-in setting injects @source directives for apps that live outside both BASE_DIR and site-packages — so editable installs of a sibling package are covered without hand-written paths:

TAILWIND_CLI_AUTO_SOURCE_EXTERNAL_APPS = True

The directive points at the app base dir, not a glob, so Tailwind walks the tree itself and picks up class strings in Python code (form widgets, admin Media, etc.) as a side effect.

tailwind watch now also runs under Django's own auto-reloader. Adding an app to INSTALLED_APPS restarts the watcher, regenerates source.css, and respawns the Tailwind CLI — no manual restart. --noreload for the old behavior.

b8a306f, TAILWIND_CLI_AUTO_SOURCE_EXTERNAL_APPS in settings.md. Closing.