Unable to get Tailwind to work with a new SvelteKit project

[codebhav]

I wanted to start a new SvelteKit project so I did the usual npx sv create my-app (SvelteKit minimal; Yes, using Typescript syntax; prettier, eslint, tailwindcss, mdsvex; typography, forms; npm).

I just can't seem to get tailwind to work, for example, here I'm trying to render a paragraph with ambel-500, but it doesn't work and the text remains default font color.

src/routes/+page.svelte:

<p class="text-amber-600">Hi!</p>

src/routes/+layout.svelte:

<script lang="ts">
	import '../app.css';
	let { children } = $props();
</script>

{@render children()}

src/app.css:

@import 'tailwindcss';
@plugin '@tailwindcss/typography';
@plugin '@tailwindcss/forms';

vite.config.ts:

import tailwindcss from '@tailwindcss/vite';
import { sveltekit } from '@sveltejs/kit/vite';
import { defineConfig } from 'vite';

export default defineConfig({
	plugins: [sveltekit(), tailwindcss()]
});

Environment

Browser: Chrome

npx envinfo --system --npmPackages svelte,vite,tailwindcss,@tailwindcss/vite --binaries --browser:

  System:
    OS: macOS 15.3.1
    CPU: (8) arm64 Apple M1
    Memory: 165.44 MB / 8.00 GB
    Shell: 5.9 - /bin/zsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 23.2.0 - /opt/homebrew/bin/node
    npm: 11.1.0 - /opt/homebrew/bin/npm
    pnpm: 9.14.2 - /opt/homebrew/bin/pnpm
  npmPackages:
    @tailwindcss/vite: ^4.0.0 => 4.0.9
    svelte: ^5.0.0 => 5.20.5
    tailwindcss: ^4.0.0 => 4.0.9
    vite: ^6.0.0 => 6.2.0

[wongjn]

Would you be able to provide a reproduction please?

[codebhav]

Absolutely, here's the URL: https://github.com/codebhav/tailwind-v4-issue

[leon]

Tested your repo and it worked for me. (MacOS, node v22.11.0)

Maybe try going back to node 22 LTS?

[codebhav]

I rolled it back to v22.14.0, and created a brand new project with all the same steps and it still doesn't work.

[codebhav]

Oh, I downloaded my own repo and did an npm install and it's somehow magically working. It's so annoying, because I created a brand new project from scratch and it doesn't work, but uploading it to GitHub and installing it works just fine. It's annoying, but I guess it still counts as a fix.

Thanks for the help!

[codebhav]

I also just restarted my computer, and now it works fine :)