On windows using tailwindcss -watch detects file changes in "./jj" folder all the time so runs all the time.

[rluiten]

./.jj/ is the folder of jj version control system jujutsu.
I tried adding "./.jj/" to .gitignore but tailwindcss still sees changes in it.
I added it to @source not in styles.css of tailwind css file and it still sees it.

I have VisualJJ installed in vscode and it snapshots ./jj for file changes - standard behavior.
So when standard tailwind with normal --watch is set to build tailwind.css output.
Any change causes jj snapshot, which causes tailwind build which causes jj snapshot ad infinitum.

I created small powershell script that creates a file watch for the files I care about and it runs tailwindcss when they change just fine.

Making tailwindcss ignore ./.jj/ might be worth while?
Clarifying how to make it ignore paths might be worth while?
I couldn't figure out how to make it ignore ./.jj/

I am using using tailwindcss as installed by winget on windows 10.

> winget list tailwind
Name         Id                       Version Source
-----------------------------------------------------
Tailwind CSS TailwindLabs.TailwindCSS 4.3.4   winget

[wongjn]

Some things to try:

• Try using the executable downloaded from the releases directly.
• Try running git init in the root of the project.
• Check that the path to .jj with @source not is relative to the styles.css it appears in.

Otherwise, run with DEBUG=* to create a Tailwind log file for debugging.

[g4lb]

@source not does not stop the watcher. Move the CSS and output to styles/, then use:

@import "tailwindcss" source(none);
@source "../src";

[rluiten]

Thanks for you suggestions.
So did a bit more digging it's not tailwindcss writing that triggers anything its VisualJJ - jj snapshots outright.

@wongjn
Switched to latest tailwindcss-windows-x64.exe v4.3.4 from github.
.\tailwindcss-windows-x64.exe -i style.css -o tailwind.css --watch

Still causes the sub second execution of tailwindcss due to jj snapshot in VisualJJ.

The root of my project is .jj so i ran originally jj git init which makes a .git and .jj folder in root.
All my source folders are in root at the moment.

The path was relative to style.css everthing is in root.

If i run the following powershell script in my working folder this reports that VisualJJ in vscode frequently touches ./jj folder.
Even if no activity at all.

$w = New-Object System.IO.FileSystemWatcher $PWD
$w.IncludeSubdirectories = $true
$w.EnableRaisingEvents = $true
Register-ObjectEvent $w Changed -Action { Write-Host (Get-Date -Format HH:mm:ss.fff) $Event.SourceEventArgs.FullPath } | Out-Null
Register-ObjectEvent $w Created -Action { Write-Host (Get-Date -Format HH:mm:ss.fff) 'CREATED' $Event.SourceEventArgs.FullPath } | Out-Null

Output when launching vscode.

18:06:08.723 D:\Dev\p\learn\test-project\.jj\repo
18:06:08.723 D:\Dev\p\learn\test-project\.jj\working_copy
18:06:09.973 D:\Dev\p\learn\test-project\.jj\repo
18:06:10.914 D:\Dev\p\learn\test-project\.jj\repo
18:06:12.165 D:\Dev\p\learn\test-project\.jj\repo
18:06:13.100 D:\Dev\p\learn\test-project\.jj\repo
18:06:14.343 D:\Dev\p\learn\test-project\.jj\repo
18:06:15.289 D:\Dev\p\learn\test-project\.jj\repo

If VisualJJ is not enabled in VSCode this doesn't happen.

This is what is triggering tailwindcss.

If I use this tailwindcss.ps1 script to use a specific file system watcher directly and just
launch tailwindcss without -watch. This works fine .jj stuff does not trigger anything.

$watcher = New-Object System.IO.FileSystemWatcher $PWD -Property @{
    Filter                = "*.*"
    IncludeSubdirectories = $false
}

$debounceMilliseconds = 300
$pending = $false
$lastChange = [DateTime]::MinValue

while ($true) {
    $change = $watcher.WaitForChanged([System.IO.WatcherChangeTypes]::Changed -bor [System.IO.WatcherChangeTypes]::Created, 1000)
    if ($change.TimedOut -eq $false -and $change.Name -match '\.(html|js|css)$' -and $change.Name -ne 'tailwind.css') {
        $pending = $true
        $lastChange = [DateTime]::UtcNow
    }

    if ($pending -and ([DateTime]::UtcNow - $lastChange).TotalMilliseconds -ge $debounceMilliseconds) {
        $pending = $false
        Write-Host "File changed: $($change.Name) - Rebuilding..." -ForegroundColor Cyan
        tailwindcss -i style.css -o tailwind.css
    }
}

@g4lb That works
I moved index.js and style.css into src/ and generated src/tailwind.css using tailwindcss -i ./src/style.css -o ./src/tailwind.css --watch

With top of style.css having

@import "tailwindcss" source(none);
@source "../src";

[Sagargupta16]

.gitignore and @source not decide what gets scanned, not what gets watched. In --watch mode the CLI subscribes a native file watcher to the base directory of every source, recursively and with no ignore list (watchDirectories and createWatchers). With a plain @import "tailwindcss" that base is the directory you run the CLI from, so every write under .jj/ wakes it and prints a new Done in line, whether or not the output changed.

Two ways to stop it:

1. Narrow the watched base to a folder that does not contain .jj/:

@import "tailwindcss" source("./src");

The path is relative to the CSS file. Move your source folders under src/ and the watcher subscribes to src/ only. g4lb's source(none) plus @source "../src" does the same thing.

2. Keep the layout and poll instead (added in 4.3.3, so your 4.3.4 has it):

.\tailwindcss-windows-x64.exe -i style.css -o tailwind.css --watch --poll

Polling re-walks the sources through the normal ignore rules every 250 ms (--poll=1000 for a slower tick), so .jj/ in .gitignore or @source not "./.jj" does exclude it there.

Making the native watcher respect the same rules would need a CLI change, so a feature request for that is reasonable.

[nimsaralekamge]

Tailwind CSS v4 automatically ignores .git/ and node_modules/, but it doesn't ignore Jujutsu's .jj/ directory by default. Because jj continuously updates working-copy state inside .jj/, the file watcher triggers an infinite rebuild loop.

You can stop Tailwind from scanning .jj/ using either of these two methods:

Method 1: Add .jj/ to your .gitignore (Recommended)

Tailwind v4's Oxide engine respects .gitignore rules out of the box. Add the folder to your root .gitignore file:

.jj/

[rluiten]

@nimsaralekamge
One of the first things I tried previous was adding .jj/ to .gitignore, mentioned above.
On windows with with 4.3.4 tailwindcss tool the folder was not ignored.

I updated tailwindcss to 4.3.5 first just in case it helps and it still has the same problem.
As above if i use the powershell watch wrapper that does ignore .jj/ and launches tailwindcss as a simple command line tool with no watch then .jj activity does not trigger build.