🎩 UseClassy

UseClassy transforms Tailwind variant attributes (class:hover="...") into standard Tailwind classes (hover:...). This allows for cleaner component markup by separating base classes from stateful or responsive variants.

Features

• Transforms attributes like class:hover="text-blue-500" to standard class="hover:text-blue-500".
• Supports chaining modifiers like class:dark:hover="text-blue-500".
• Works seamlessly with React (className) and Vue/HTML (class).
• Integrates with Vite's build process and dev server. No runtime overhead.
• Smart Caching: Avoids reprocessing unchanged files during development.
• Runs before Tailwind JIT compiler with HMR and TailwindMerge support.

Installation

# npm
npm install vite-plugin-useclassy --save-dev

# yarn
yarn add vite-plugin-useclassy -D

# pnpm
pnpm add vite-plugin-useclassy -D

When using the React helpers (vite-plugin-useclassy/react), install React 18 or 19 (react satisfies ^18.0.0 || ^19.0.0). The Vite plugin alone does not require React for Vue or Blade projects.

Quick setup (recommended)

After installing the package, run the init helper from your app root (where package.json and vite.config.* live). It patches Vite, Tailwind (v3 or v4), and VS Code settings when it can do so safely.

npx vite-plugin-useclassy init

Options:

# React: include className:* IntelliSense patterns
npx vite-plugin-useclassy init --language react

Add --dry-run to any init command to print the planned file changes without modifying your repo (for example npx vite-plugin-useclassy init --language react --dry-run).

If detection fails or your config is non-standard, use the manual steps below.

Vite Configuration

Add useClassy to your Vite plugins. It's recommended that you place it before Tailwind or other CSS processing plugins.

// vite.config.ts
import useClassy from "vite-plugin-useclassy";

export default {
  plugins: [
    useClassy({
      language: "react", // or 'vue' or 'blade'

      // Optional: Customize the output directory. Defaults to '.classy'.
      // outputDir: '.classy',

      // Optional: Customize output file name. Defaults to 'output.classy.html'.
      // outputFileName: 'generated-classes.html'

      // Optional: Enable debugging. Defaults to false.
      // debug: true,
    }),
    // ... other plugins
  ],
};

React Usage (className)

Variant Attributes

// Input (using class:variant attributes)
<button
  className="px-4 py-2 rounded bg-blue-600 text-white"
  className:hover="bg-blue-700 scale-105"
  className:focus="ring-2 ring-blue-300"
  className:disabled="opacity-50 cursor-not-allowed"
  className:dark="bg-sky-700"
/>

// Output (after transformation by the plugin)
<button
  className="px-4 py-2 rounded bg-blue-600 text-white hover:bg-blue-700 hover:scale-105 focus:ring-2 focus:ring-blue-300 disabled:opacity-50 disabled:cursor-not-allowed dark:bg-sky-700 dark:hover:bg-sky-800"
/>

Vue / HTML Usage (class)

<template>
  <button
    class="px-4 py-2 rounded bg-blue-600 text-white"
    class:hover="bg-blue-700 scale-105"
    class:focus="ring-2 ring-blue-300"
    class:disabled="opacity-50 cursor-not-allowed"
    class:dark="bg-sky-700"
  />

  <!-- Output -->
  <button
    class="px-4 py-2 rounded bg-blue-600 text-white hover:bg-blue-700 hover:scale-105 focus:ring-2 focus:ring-blue-300 disabled:opacity-50 disabled:cursor-not-allowed dark:bg-sky-700 dark:hover:bg-sky-800"
  />
</template>

Laravel Blade Usage

For Laravel applications, install the dedicated Composer package. The service provider will be automatically registered via Laravel's package auto-discovery.

composer require useclassy/laravel

Add 'blade' to the language option in your Vite configuration

useClassy({
  language: "blade",
});

Blade Template Usage

<h1 class="text-xl" class:lg="text-3xl" class:hover="text-blue-600">
    Responsive heading that changes on large screens and hover
</h1>

The package transforms these during Blade compilation:

• class:lg="text-3xl" becomes lg:text-3xl
• class:hover="text-blue-600" becomes hover:text-blue-600
• class:dark="bg-gray-800 text-white" becomes dark:bg-gray-800 dark:text-white

These transformed classes are merged with any existing class attributes.

Requirements

• PHP ^8.1
• Laravel ^10.0|^11.0|^12.0

Tailwind JIT Integration

UseClassy writes discovered classes to .classy/output.classy.html by default (configurable via outputDir / outputFileName). Tailwind must scan that file so utilities like hover:… exist in CSS.

Why @source / content is required

The plugin adds .classy/ to .gitignore. Tailwind CSS v4 does not scan gitignored paths during automatic detection, so it will miss the manifest unless you register it explicitly. Use @source in your CSS (v4) or add the file to content (v3). See Tailwind’s docs: Detecting classes in source files.

Tailwind v4

@source paths are relative to the stylesheet file, not necessarily the project root. If your entry CSS lives in src/, the line may look like ../.classy/output.classy.html instead of ./.classy/....

/* Example when the stylesheet is next to package.json */
@import "tailwindcss";
@source "./.classy/output.classy.html";

Tailwind v3

Add the manifest to content in tailwind.config.*:

export default {
  content: [
    // ...existing paths
    "./.classy/output.classy.html",
  ],
};

Path helpers (optional)

The package exports stable defaults and helpers so docs, init, and your own scripts stay aligned:

import {
  getUseClassyTailwindSourceDirective,
  getUseClassyTailwindSourceLineForRootStylesheet,
  getUseClassyTailwindV3ContentEntry,
} from "vite-plugin-useclassy";
// or: import { ... } from "vite-plugin-useclassy/tailwind";

// v4: correct @source for a given CSS file path
const line = getUseClassyTailwindSourceDirective(
  "/path/to/project/src/app.css",
  "/path/to/project",
);
// line → @source "../.classy/output.classy.html";

// v4 shorthand when the CSS file sits beside package.json:
getUseClassyTailwindSourceLineForRootStylesheet();
// → @source "./.classy/output.classy.html";

// v3 content array entry (default output paths):
getUseClassyTailwindV3ContentEntry();
// → "./.classy/output.classy.html"

If you customize outputDir or outputFileName in useClassy({ ... }), pass the same options into these helpers.

Tailwind IntelliSense

Add the following to your editor settings to enable IntelliSense for UseClassy variant attributes.

{
  "tailwindCSS.classAttributes": [
    "class",
    "class:[\\w:-]*",
    "className",
    "className:[\\w:-]*"
  ]
}

For Vue-only projects you can omit the className entries. Running npx vite-plugin-useclassy init merges these into .vscode/settings.json when possible.

AI-assisted setup

Use this prompt in your editor agent when you want a one-shot manual setup (for example if init cannot patch your repo):

Prompt — “Set up UseClassy in this repo”

1. Install dev dependency: vite-plugin-useclassy (use the repo’s package manager: npm, pnpm, or yarn).
2. Open vite.config.*. Add import useClassy from 'vite-plugin-useclassy'. In plugins, insert useClassy({ language: '<vue|react|blade>' }) before @tailwindcss/vite or other CSS pipeline plugins so it runs early.
3. Tailwind v4 (project uses @import "tailwindcss" and typically @tailwindcss/vite): In the main CSS entry that imports Tailwind, add an @source line pointing at the generated manifest. Default manifest path is .classy/output.classy.html from the project root; the @source path must be relative to that CSS file. If useClassy uses custom outputDir / outputFileName, use those instead.
4. Tailwind v3 (tailwind.config.*): Add ".classy/output.classy.html" (or ./.classy/output.classy.html as appropriate) to the content array without removing existing entries.
5. VS Code: In .vscode/settings.json (merge, do not wipe), set or extend tailwindCSS.classAttributes to include "class:[\\w:-]*". For React, also add "className:[\\w:-]*".
6. Run dev once so .classy/output.classy.html is generated; confirm Tailwind includes a class that only appears on a class:hover or className:hover attribute.

A Cursor rule template you can copy into an app repo lives at templates/useclassy-setup.cursor-rule.mdc.

Debugging

Enable debugging by setting debug: true in the plugin options. This will log detailed information about the plugin's operation to the console.

useClassy({
  debug: true,
});

Processing Rules

• Only processes files with .vue, .tsx, .jsx, .html, .blade.php extensions.
• Does not process files in the node_modules directory.
• Does not process files in .gitignore directories.
• Does not process virtual modules.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request.

License

MIT