tailwind-best-practices

Tailwind Best Practices

Overview

Routing and priority guide for Mastra Playground UI styling, containing 5 rules across 3 categories. Rule files hold the detailed explanations, examples, and review guidance that ensure design system consistency, prevent token drift, and maintain component library integrity.

Scope

• packages/playground-ui
• packages/playground

When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:

• Writing new React components with Tailwind styles
• Reviewing code for styling consistency
• Refactoring existing styled components
• Adding or modifying UI elements

Priority-Ordered Guidelines

Rules are prioritized by impact:

Priority	Category	Impact
1	Component Usage	CRITICAL
2	Design Tokens	CRITICAL
3	ClassName Usage	HIGH

Quick Reference

Critical Patterns (Apply First)

Component Usage:

• Use existing components from @playground-ui/ds/components/ (component-use-existing)
• Never create new components in the ds/ folder

Design Tokens:

• Only use tokens from tailwind.config.ts in @playground-ui (tokens-use-existing)
• Never modify design tokens or tailwind.config.ts (tokens-no-modification)

High-Impact Patterns

ClassName Usage:

• No arbitrary Tailwind values except height and width (classname-no-arbitrary)
• No className prop on DS components except h-/w- on DialogContent and Popover (classname-no-ds-override)

References

Rule files are the canonical source for detailed guidance and examples:

• references/tailwind-best-practices-reference.md - Rule catalog with category order and rule-file paths
• references/rules/ - Canonical individual rule files organized by category

Load only the relevant rule file when implementing or reviewing a specific styling rule. Use the catalog to choose the right rule without loading every example.

To look up a specific pattern, grep the rules directory:

grep -l "component" references/rules/
grep -l "token" references/rules/
grep -l "className" references/rules/

Rule Categories in references/rules/

• component-* - Component usage rules (1 rule)
• tokens-* - Design token rules (2 rules)
• classname-* - ClassName usage rules (2 rules)