"git init" required for Tailwind v4/Vite class detection?

[JoshAllenJones]

I came across an odd problem while creating a new project and was curious if this is intended functionality.

After following the documented installation steps for Vite and Tailwind v4, the default styling was stripped from elements like <h1> but it was not detecting any class names added to components. I was using Vue so I spun up another Vite project with React and had the same issue. The issue was only resolved on both after running git init in their respective project directories. Once I ran that command, the added class names were detected and compiled correctly.

Is this a known requirement for getting Tailwind up and running? Or is there something particularly odd happening in my environment? I didn't see anything in the documentation about performing this step but I was curious if this was something others have found themselves needing to do. Obviously, best practices for a project should involve version control, but I often find myself spinning up the odd project here and there for prototyping.

[wongjn]

You may have some .gitignore (or equivalent) in the file system above the project root. Tailwind's automatic scanner uses git ignore rules to determine what files to scan. When you initialize a repo with git init, this creates a "boundary" to stop Tailwind's scanner from searching above the project root for git ignore rules.

[JoshAllenJones]

Ahhhh I see, this makes sense. And you are correct, there was a rogue gitignore files in the directory above. Appreciate it!