Tailwind v3 to v4 migration

tailwind-v3-to-v4-migration

Upgrade a codebase from Tailwind CSS v3 to v4. The codemod does ~80% of the mechanical work; this skill supplies the 20% of judgment where migrations actually break — changed defaults, config porting, plugin/animation swaps, and proving nothing moved.

When to use

• Upgrading any project from Tailwind v3.x to v4.x.
• Build errors after a partial upgrade: @tailwind directives unknown, missing @tailwindcss/postcss, Cannot apply unknown utility class, tailwind.config no longer picked up.
• Converting tailwind.config.{js,ts} to CSS-first @theme.

Skip if: the project is already on v4; you need to downgrade; or you only need a brand-new design system (use tailwind-design-system). Note v4 targets Safari 16.4+, Chrome 111+, Firefox 128+ — if you must support older browsers, stay on v3.4 (flag this to the operator before proceeding).

The one idea that makes this safe

A correct migration is a visual no-op. Every renamed utility is a pure alias — shadow-sm→ shadow-xs, rounded→rounded-sm, ring→ring-3, outline-none→outline-hidden all compile to the same CSS as before. So what changes pixels is almost entirely v4's changed defaults (Step 3); the few non-default exceptions — the space-x/y-* & divide-* selector change, gradient-variant preservation, and container config removal — are flagged in Step 4. Rename mechanically, neutralize the changed defaults, fix those few exceptions, and the rendered output is identical. That is also how you verify success (Step 5): capture the UI before, prove it's unchanged after.

Procedure

Always work on a branch. Run the steps in order; do not skip Step 0 or Step 3.

Step 0 — Pre-flight & baseline (do not skip)

1. Confirm Node 20+ (node -v) and that the working tree is clean. Create a branch (e.g. tailwind-v4).
2. Inventory every Tailwind entry point — there may be more than one: each CSS file with @tailwind/@import "tailwindcss", every tailwind.config.*, every postcss.config.*, the bundler config (next/vite/webpack), and package.json. Monorepos: do this per package.
3. Record the current setup: darkMode value, custom theme.extend, plugins, the package manager (npm/yarn/pnpm/bun), and two easy-to-miss config options that need special handling later: prefix (v4 changes tw-flex→tw:flex) and theme.container (center/padding are gone in v4 — recreate via @utility container).
4. Capture a baseline of how the app looks now so you can prove the migration changed nothing: a screenshot set or a visual-regression run on v3 (see references/05-verification-playwright.md), or at minimum a list of key pages to eyeball. Confirm the project builds green on v3 first.

Step 1 — Run the official upgrade tool

npx @tailwindcss/upgrade@latest          # clean git tree required…
npx @tailwindcss/upgrade@latest --force  # …or pass --force if untracked/uncommitted files exist

The tool refuses to run on a dirty tree (so you can review its diff). Commit/stash unrelated changes, or use --force. It updates dependencies, migrates the config to CSS where it can, rewrites @tailwind directives, and codemods most renamed/removed utilities in templates. Review the full diff — it is a starting point, not the finish line. If it errors (offline, exotic setup, unsupported config), fall back to the manual path in references/01-breaking-changes.md + references/02-css-first-config.md and continue. Monorepos: run the tool once per package root and confirm tailwindcss resolves to 4.x in every package's node_modules — a half-migrated workspace compiles some packages against v3.

Step 2 — Reconcile dependencies & build plumbing

Verify the tool did these; finish any it missed (references/04-framework-setups.md for your stack):

• Deps: remove tailwindcss@3; add tailwindcss@^4. Remove autoprefixer and postcss-import (v4 does prefixing + import inlining itself).
• PostCSS: postcss.config.* → { plugins: { '@tailwindcss/postcss': {} } } (add the @tailwindcss/postcss dep). Vite: prefer @tailwindcss/vite over PostCSS. CLI: npx tailwindcss → npx @tailwindcss/cli.
• CSS entry: @tailwind base/components/utilities; → @import "tailwindcss";.
• Plugins: delete now-built-in ones (@tailwindcss/container-queries, @tailwindcss/aspect-ratio, line-clamp) — and remove their dead theme/usage. @tailwindcss/typography stays but is loaded in CSS via @plugin "@tailwindcss/typography"; and must be bumped to a v4-compatible release (≥0.5.16).
• container customization: if v3 set theme.container.center/padding, those options are gone — recreate as @utility container { margin-inline: auto; padding-inline: 2rem; } or every container loses its centering/padding silently.
• Reinstall with the project's package manager so the lockfile updates; the tailwindcss version must resolve to 4.x.

Step 3 — Changed-defaults audit + compat shims (the parity killers)

These changed defaults are the main thing that moves pixels (see Step 4 for the few non-default exceptions). Walk the checklist; for each "relied on", paste the shim into your main CSS (after @import "tailwindcss";). Full rationale in references/03-compat-shims.md.

• Border/divide color is now currentColor (was gray-200). If you use bare border/divide without a color anywhere, add:

  @layer base {
    *, ::after, ::before, ::backdrop, ::file-selector-button {
      border-color: var(--color-gray-200, currentColor);
    }
  }
  

• Ring is now 1px / currentColor (was 3px / blue-500). Replace bare ring→ring-3; if you relied on the blue default add ring-blue-500. (Compat-only escape: @theme { --default-ring-width: 3px; --default-ring-color: var(--color-blue-500); }.)
• Placeholder is now current text @ 50% (was gray-400). To keep v3 look:

  @layer base { input::placeholder, textarea::placeholder { color: var(--color-gray-400); } }
  

• Buttons now use cursor: default (was pointer):

  @layer base { button:not(:disabled), [role="button"]:not(:disabled) { cursor: pointer; } }
  

• <dialog> margins are reset (was centered): @layer base { dialog { margin: auto; } } if needed.
• Hover now applies only on (hover: hover) devices. If your UI depends on tap-to-hover, add @custom-variant hover (&:hover);.
• Dark mode: if v3 used darkMode: 'class' (or a custom selector), add @custom-variant dark (&:is(.dark, .dark *));. If it used 'media', v4's default already matches — do nothing (adding the class variant would break media-driven dark mode).

Two of these are invisible to a screenshot harness: the button-cursor and hover-on-tap shims change behavior, not painted pixels, so visual parity (Step 5) can't confirm them. Decide them by reasoning about the markup (do real <button>s / touch interactions rely on the v3 default?), not by the pixel diff. Same for outline-none→outline-hidden (the difference only shows in forced-colors mode).

Step 4 — Residual sweep (catch what the codemod missed)

Grep, then fix each real hit against the tables in references/01-breaking-changes.md (which cover the mechanical rewrites: *-opacity-*→/<n>, flex-shrink/grow→shrink/grow, bg-gradient-to→ bg-linear-to, arbitrary bg-[--x]→bg-(--x), !flex→flex!, theme()→var(--…), etc.):

grep -rEn '@tailwind |bg-gradient-to-|flex-shrink-|flex-grow-|overflow-ellipsis|decoration-slice|decoration-clone|[a-z]+-opacity-[0-9]|outline-none' src
grep -rEn '\b(shadow|rounded|blur|drop-shadow|backdrop-blur)(["'"'"'`[:space:]])' src   # bare scales — review, don't blind-replace
grep -rEn 'transition(-colors)?\b' src    # if paired with a focus-state outline-* color → set outline-color unconditionally
# only if v3 used a prefix (Step 0): grep -rEn '\bPFX-[a-z]' src   # PFX-flex → PFX:flex

Three judgment calls the tables don't make for you:

• Order bare renames after explicit ones: shadow-sm→shadow-xs before bare shadow→shadow-sm (same for rounded/blur/drop-shadow/backdrop-blur); word-boundary the bare form so rounded-md/ shadow-lg are untouched. The grep is noisy — blur/shadow collide with placeholder="blur" and prose; fix only real class lists.
• space-x/y-* & divide-x/y-* selectors changed to :not(:last-child) (no shim). If a list/inline layout shifts, move it to flex/grid + gap.
• Gradients now preserve stops across variants — add via-none to reset a 3-stop in a state.

Step 5 — Verify (build + browser parity)

1. build, lint, typecheck, and unit tests must pass.
2. Prove the visual no-op: re-run the baseline from Step 0 and confirm zero unintended diffs. Pay special attention to: borders, focus rings, placeholders, dark mode, and any prose (typography) content. Any diff maps to a missed Step 3 shim or Step 4 rename — fix it, don't accept it.
3. Check the screenshot-invisible changes by hand: button cursor, hover-on-touch, and forced-colors outline behavior (see the Step 3 note) — confirm these in a real browser, since no pixel diff will.

Decision points

• Port JS config to CSS, or keep it? Default: port theme.extend to a CSS @theme {} block (nested objects → flat vars: colors.brand.500→--color-brand-500, boxShadow.card→--shadow-card, fontFamily.sans→--font-sans; use @theme inline for hsl(var(--x)) references). Keep the JS file via @config "../tailwind.config.js"; when it carries plugin theming that's hard to express in CSS — the classic case is @tailwindcss/typography theme.extend.typography customization (custom prose-* modifiers). @config is officially supported v4 usage. corePlugins, safelist, separator are NOT supported in JS config under v4 (safelist → @source inline(...)). Note: Tailwind's default theme tokens (e.g. --color-gray-200, --color-gray-400) stay available even when you keep a JS config via @config, so the Step 3 compat shims that reference them still resolve. See references/02-css-first-config.md.
• CSS directive order: @import "tailwindcss"; must come first; place @config "…"; and any @theme { … } block after it.
• Custom @layer utilities/@layer components classes → convert to @utility name { … }.
• Animation libs: tailwindcss-animate (v3) → tw-animate-css (@import "tw-animate-css";), utility names unchanged.
• Scoped styles (Vue/Svelte/Astro <style>, CSS modules) lose theme access → add @reference "../app.css"; or use raw CSS vars. No Sass/Less/Stylus with v4.

Manual fallback (no codemod)

deps → postcss.config → @import "tailwindcss"; → port theme to @theme (or @config) → Step 3 shims → Step 4 sweep → Step 5 verify. Exhaustive tables: references/01-breaking-changes.md, references/02-css-first-config.md, references/03-compat-shims.md.

References

• references/00-official-upgrade-guide.md — the official Tailwind v3→v4 upgrade guide, verbatim (source of truth; everything below distills it). https://tailwindcss.com/docs/upgrade-guide
• references/01-breaking-changes.md — complete renamed / removed / syntax-change tables.
• references/02-css-first-config.md — JS theme → @theme; @config fallback; plugins; @utility.
• references/03-compat-shims.md — every changed default + its copy-paste shim and when it's needed.
• references/04-framework-setups.md — Next.js, Vite, CLI, PostCSS, Astro, Vue, Svelte, CSS modules.
• references/05-verification-playwright.md — capture-baseline-then-assert visual-parity recipe.
• references/06-gotchas.md — rename ordering, typography prose port, gradient via-none, hover-on-tap, monorepos.