tailwindcss CLI no longer works with Docker bind mounts

[GICodeWarrior]

What version of Tailwind CSS are you using?

4.1.11

What build tool (or framework if it abstracts the build tool) are you using?

@tailwindcss/cli

What version of Node.js are you using?

node:22-slim

What browser are you using?

Chrome

What operating system are you using?

macOS (w/docker)

Reproduction URL

Create a Dockerfile similar to the following:

FROM node:22-slim

WORKDIR /opt/app/
COPY package.json package-lock.json tailwind.css ./
RUN npm install

CMD ["npm", "run", "build-css:dev"]

Create a package.json similar to the following:

{
  "scripts": {
    "build-css": "tailwindcss -i ./tailwind.css -o ./static/tailwind.css",
    "build-css:dev": "tailwindcss -i ./tailwind.css -o ./static/tailwind.css --watch --poll"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@tailwindcss/cli": "^4.1.11",
    "@tailwindcss/typography": "^0.5.16",
    "tailwind-scrollbar": "^4.0.2",
    "tailwindcss": "^4.1.11"
  }
}

Create a tailwind.css similar to the following:

@import "tailwindcss" source(none);
@source "templates";

Build and launch the docker image with templates bind mounted into the container.

Modify a file in the templates directory.

Note tailwindcss CLI does not detect the change.

Describe your issue

The --poll option was removed from the tailwindcss CLI and as a result, the --watch option no longer works with docker bind mounts.

The advantage of a bind mount is that we can run the tailwindcss CLI inside a docker container as part of our docker compose file, and the output from the CLI is then available to our app running in a separate container (during development).

However, a bind mount on macOS docker doesn't forward filesystem events, so it's necessary to poll.

The new watcher library being used offers a "brute-force" backend which might help(?), but I don't see a way to select that backend in tailwindcss.
https://www.npmjs.com/package/@parcel/watcher

(see also #7725)

[oliverlangan]

Seeing the same problem: source file changes are no longer detected within the docker container, due to the removal of --poll

[DanielBaumert]

Have the same issue :( someone a solutions?

[GICodeWarrior]

If you're encountering this issue, please add a 👍 to the top post. That should help demonstrate how many folks are affected. 😄

As a workaround, I've been using fswatch.

If you're using my example above, place this after the FROM line:

RUN apt-get update \
  && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends fswatch \
  && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

and replace the existing CMD line with this:

CMD npm run build-css; fswatch --monitor=poll_monitor -r -o <paths to monitor...> | xargs -I@ npm run build-css

Replace <paths to monitor...> with the locations you want to watch.

This runs the build once at container startup, then once again each time a file is changed within those paths.

Since the build process is started fresh after each change, I anticipate this will have higher latency than integral polling support.

[thacoon]

@DanielBaumert as a workaround I use chokedir: npm install chokidar-cli --save-dev

And then in my package.json I have in one of my projects for example the following:

...
"scripts": {
    "tailwind-watch": "SHELL=/bin/bash chokidar '../**/*.{html,js,jsx,ts,tsx}' --ignore '../**/{node_modules,dist,.git}/**' -c 'tailwindcss -i ./index.css -o ../server/static/css/index.css' --initial --polling",
    ...
}
...

[RobinMalfait]

Hey!

Small update: unfortunately @parcel/watcher doesn't support polling like this, and there are open issues, e.g.:

• Watcher not reporting events when used in docker. parcel-bundler/watcher#148

They do have a brute-force backend option, but that doesn't work as expected. They don't implement the subscribe function and crash the process when you try to use that.

[davidkuridza]

Had the same issue, it seems to work with --watch=always:

tailwindcss -i input.css -o output.css --watch=always