How to add a @tailwind CSS rule to css checker

Question

Tailwind adds @tailwind css at rule which is flagged as unknown. How can I avoid this error?

eg styles.css

@tailwind prefligh

Answer 1

Visual Studio Code allows you to define Custom Data for CSS Language Service.

For example, in your workspace’s .vscode/settings.json you can add:

{
  "css.customData": [".vscode/css_custom_data.json"]
}

And then in .vscode/css_custom_data.json add:

{
  "atDirectives": [
    {
      "name": "@tailwind",
      "description": "Use the @tailwind directive to insert Tailwind’s `base`, `components`, `utilities`, and `screens` styles into your CSS.",
      "references": [
        {
          "name": "Tailwind’s “Functions & Directives” documentation",
          "url": "https://tailwindcss.com/docs/functions-and-directives/#tailwind"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Note that you will have to reload the VS Code window for the change to be picked up.

Here is a copy of .vscode/css_custom_data.json, which contains all directives with short usage snippets (which in turn get syntax highlighted in vs code):

{
  "version": 1.1,
  "atDirectives": [
    {
      "name": "@tailwind",
      "description": "Use the `@tailwind` directive to insert Tailwind's `base`, `components`, `utilities` and `screens` styles into your CSS.",
      "references": [
        {
          "name": "Tailwind Documentation",
          "url": "https://tailwindcss.com/docs/functions-and-directives#tailwind"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "@responsive",
      "description": "You can generate responsive variants of your own classes by wrapping their definitions in the `@responsive` directive:\n```css\n@responsive {\n  .alert {\n    background-color: #E53E3E;\n  }\n}\n```\n",
      "references": [
        {
          "name": "Tailwind Documentation",
          "url": "https://tailwindcss.com/docs/functions-and-directives#responsive"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "@screen",
      "description": "The `@screen` directive allows you to create media queries that reference your breakpoints by **name** instead of duplicating their values in your own CSS:\n```css\n@screen sm {\n  /* ... */\n}\n```\n…gets transformed into this:\n```css\n@media (min-width: 640px) {\n  /* ... */\n}\n```\n",
      "references": [
        {
          "name": "Tailwind Documentation",
          "url": "https://tailwindcss.com/docs/functions-and-directives#screen"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "@variants",
      "description": "Generate `hover`, `focus`, `active` and other **variants** of your own utilities by wrapping their definitions in the `@variants` directive:\n```css\n@variants hover, focus {\n   .btn-brand {\n    background-color: #3182CE;\n  }\n}\n```\n",
      "references": [
        {
          "name": "Tailwind Documentation",
          "url": "https://tailwindcss.com/docs/functions-and-directives#variants"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Here's a preview of the result:

The only directive missing is @apply, because it's declared at the CSS property level. The CSS Language Service probably doesn't expect atRules at the property level and won't pick up such directives.