Using @tailwindcss/vite breaks updates on imported CSS

[vladmoroz]

What version of Tailwind CSS are you using?

v4.0.15 (latest)

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

Vite 6.2.2 (latest)

Reproduction URL

https://codesandbox.io/p/devbox/x3r86q

Describe your issue

Initial setup:

• Import Tailwind and another CSS file(s) into the root CSS file

Steps to reproduce:

1. Edit index.html (may be a change to JS/JSX files too)
2. Edit imported.css
3. Outdated CSS will be served until another change to index.html or index.css is made, or until the server is restarted. Page refresh doesn't serve the latest CSS either.

CSS changes work fine without @import "tailwindcss". It also works when using @tailwindcss/postcss instead of the Vite plugin.

Might be related
#16764

[philipp-spiess]

Hey! Thanks for the bug report, was able to confirm this and merged a fix into main. Will be out with the next release 👍

[vladmoroz]

Hey, appreciate a fast fix
While we are here, is there any reason to use @taildwindcss/vite over @tailwindcss/postcss?

[philipp-spiess]

Hey! Good question especially since 4.0.7 made these two much closer in-line. The biggest reason is that Vite can be used without PostCSS at all (using the css.transformer option IIRC). But also we have much better control of the dependency graph with a Vite plugin so it does not require us to add lots of wildcard listeners.