Theme Toggle in Astro 5 + Tailwind 4

#astro #tailwindcss #frontend #programming

For this project we will be using npm for package management. You can follow this steps to create a minimal Astro 5 with Tailwind CSS 4 project and implement a basic theme toggle button.

Prerequisites:

NodeJs installed
Code editor download here

1. Create a new Astro project

  # Create a new project with npm
  npm create astro@latest my-astro-project

If you don't have installed create astro just accept the installation. During the initial setup, select the options you prefer (generally "Empty" is a good option to start with).

Navigate to the project directory

  cd my-astro-project

2. Install Tailwind CSS 4

Install Tailwind CSS based on the integration with astro in tailwindcss docs you can check here:

  npm install tailwindcss @tailwindcss/vite

3. Configure Tailwind CSS for Astro

Modify the atro.config.mjs file:

  import { defineConfig } from "astro/config";
  // add this line
  import tailwindcss from "@tailwindcss/vite";

  export default defineConfig({
    // add this code
    vite: {
      plugins: [tailwindcss()],
    },
    // add this code
  });

4. Create the global CSS file

Create a file at src/styles/global.css with the following content:

  @tailwindcss;

  /* Create a custom Tailwind variant for dark mode.
   * It applies styles when .dark is present on the element.
   * :where(.dark, .dark *) ensures low specificity for better overrides.
  */
  @custom-variant dark (&:where(.dark, .dark *));

5. Add content to index

Modify the src/pages/index.astro file with this content:

  ---

  ---

  <html lang="en">
    <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8" />
      <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
      <title>My Astro Theme Toggle</title>
    </head>
    <body class="transition-colors duration-300 bg-white text-black dark:bg-gray-900 dark:text-white">
      <div class="container mx-auto p-4 flex items-center justify-center">
        <h1 class="text-2xl font-bold mb-4">Astro Site + Tailwind</h1>

        <button 
          id="theme-toggle" 
          class="px-4 py-2 bg-gray-200 dark:bg-gray-700 rounded-md"
        >
          Toggle Theme
        </button>

        <div class="mt-8">
          <p>More content...</p>
        </div>
      </div>

      <script>
        // Simple script to toggle the theme
        document.getElementById('theme-toggle')?.addEventListener('click', () => {
          document.body.classList.toggle('dark');
        });
      </script>
    </body>
  </html>

6. Run the development server

  npm run dev

This will start the Astro development server. Navigate to http://localhost:4321 in your browser to see your site and test the theme toggle button.

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