Grouped responsive utility syntax in Tailwind CSS

[kefahB]

Problem Statement

Tailwind CSS is an amazing framework for utility-first styling, but its responsive syntax can sometimes feel repetitive and cluttered. When using multiple responsive utilities (sm, md, lg, etc.), we must prefix every individual class, leading to longer and less readable code.

Proposed Solution: Grouped Responsive Syntax

Instead of repeating the same prefix for each class, why not group responsive utilities together under a single breakpoint?

Example Comparison

Current Approach (Verbose & Repetitive)

<div className="w-full h-32 
                sm:h-40 sm:bg-blue-300 sm:border-2 
                md:h-48 md:bg-green-400 md:rounded-lg 
                lg:h-56 lg:bg-yellow-500 lg:shadow-xl 
                dark:bg-gray-800 dark:border-gray-600">
</div>

Proposed Approach (Cleaner & More Readable)

<div className="w-full h-32 
                sm:{ h-40 bg-blue-300 border-2 } 
                md:{ h-48 bg-green-400 rounded-lg } 
                lg:{ h-56 bg-yellow-500 shadow-xl } 
                dark:{ bg-gray-800 border-gray-600 }">
</div>

How It Works

•	Group classes inside {} for each breakpoint.
•	Keep the global classes outside the responsive blocks.
•	Eliminate redundancy, making it more readable and maintainable.

Benefits

✅ Improved Readability – No more repeating sm:, md:, etc., multiple times.
✅ Less Code Duplication – Write fewer lines while achieving the same styling.
✅ Easier Maintenance – Quickly update styles without searching for multiple occurrences of the same breakpoint.
✅ More Logical Grouping – Styles are visually grouped by breakpoints, making it easier to understand the structure.

Challenges & Considerations

• Tailwind’s Parsing Engine Needs Modification – The existing compiler expects prefixes on each class.
• Potential Compatibility Issues – Would this syntax break existing Tailwind tooling, plugins, or intellisense?
• Would It Work with JIT Mode? – The JIT compiler would need adjustments to parse grouped syntax correctly.

Conclusion

This feature could revolutionize Tailwind CSS’s readability and maintainability, making it even more developer-friendly. However, it would require changes to the Tailwind compiler to support grouped utilities. Would love to hear thoughts from the Tailwind community! 🚀

Discussion Questions

• Would you find this syntax improvement useful in real-world projects?
• What potential downsides or edge cases can you think of?
• How could this be implemented in a way that remains backward-compatible?

[wongjn]

There have been suggestions about adding such a feature. The maintainers have addressed this request before, that you may wish to read up on if you have not already done so:

• A Twitter thread from the creator of Tailwind, Adam Wathan
• A previous GitHub discussion thread with maintainer responses

[jimydavis]

@kefahB I think wrote some code that seems like it responds to your problem - https://www.npmjs.com/package/vite-plugin-twneat . I have the same problem too. Even in writing very simple landing pages, the mental strain of staring at tiny font "md:" "sm:hover:group" and how they interact and inherit up and down screen sizes, its really tough for me. Then a lot of past discussions were for v3 and not for v4 - so that adds even more confusion as v4 is a very big change without plugins, safelists, the js config file etc.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

It probably has bugs and not very performant, but the code is fairly straightforward - it just concats things and dumps it in a safelist. I am not sure but I don't think it produces more classes than what you would have written natively without groupings.