Tailwind UI Templates

Overview

Always search templates before writing Tailwind UI code from scratch.

You have access to 657 hand-crafted Tailwind UI templates in assets/. These templates include dark mode, accessibility, polish, and edge case handling that you won't replicate from scratch.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Building any common UI component (hero, navbar, form, list, card, modal, etc.)
• Writing HTML/JSX with Tailwind CSS classes
• Need professional-quality, accessible, responsive UI

Skip for:

• Minor styling tweaks to existing code
• Non-UI code (logic, data, APIs)

Template Discovery

1. Search the Index

# Find templates by keyword
grep -i "hero" assets/index.jsonl | jq .

# Browse by category
grep '"category":"marketing"' assets/index.jsonl | jq -r '.subsection' | sort | uniq

# Find specific component type
grep -i "stacked.*list" assets/index.jsonl | jq .

2. Understand the Hierarchy

Category (3): marketing, application-ui, ecommerce
  └─ Section: Page Sections, Elements, Forms, etc.
      └─ Subsection: Hero Sections, Feature Sections, Stacked Lists, etc.
          └─ Component: "Simple centered", "Split with screenshot", etc.

3. Read the Template

assets/code/{version}/{language}/{category}/{subsection}/{slug}.{ext}

Examples:
  assets/code/v4/html/marketing/hero-sections/simple-centered.html
  assets/code/v4/react/application-ui/stacked-lists/with-badges.tsx
  assets/code/v4/vue/ecommerce/product-pages/with-image-grid.vue

Always prefer v4 (latest Tailwind CSS). Use v3 only for legacy projects.

Usage Modes

Mode	When	How
Verbatim	Template matches exactly	Copy template, swap placeholder content
Modify	Template is close	Start from template, adjust structure/styling
Synthesize	Need combination	Study 2-3 similar templates, combine patterns
Learn & Create	No exact match	Find closest templates, extract patterns, apply to novel component

When No Exact Template Exists

Never write truly from scratch. Even for novel components, find inspiration and patterns in existing templates. This ensures your code is consistent with Tailwind UI conventions even when no template exists.

Template Qualities to Preserve

Tailwind UI templates include polish you'll lose if writing from scratch:

• Dark mode: dark: variants throughout
• Accessibility: aria-* attributes, semantic HTML, focus states
• Responsive: Mobile-first with sm:, md:, lg: breakpoints
• Focus states: focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2
• Subtle polish: text-pretty, shadow-xs, gradient masks, decorative SVGs

Red Flags

If you catch yourself doing any of these, STOP and search templates:

• "Let me write a quick hero section"
• "I'll just add some Tailwind classes"
• "This is a simple component"
• "I know how to do this"
• "There's no template for this" → Find similar ones and learn patterns!

657 templates exist. One is probably close, or several can teach you the patterns.