i am trying to install the tailwind in react project but while creating tailwind.config file i am having this issue. this is the error i am facing

npx tailwindcss init -p
npm error could not determine executable to run
npm error A plete log of this run can be found in:
C:\Users\PMLS\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2025-03-06T15_42_53_449Z-debug-0.log

I have cleared the cache and deleted the node_module folder and npm install too. I have installed the latest version of nodeJS, too, but it still doesn't work.

i am trying to install the tailwind in react project but while creating tailwind.config file i am having this issue. this is the error i am facing

npx tailwindcss init -p
npm error could not determine executable to run
npm error A plete log of this run can be found in:
C:\Users\PMLS\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2025-03-06T15_42_53_449Z-debug-0.log

I have cleared the cache and deleted the node_module folder and npm install too. I have installed the latest version of nodeJS, too, but it still doesn't work.

• javascript
• reactjs
• node.js
• tailwind-css
• tailwind-css-4

Share Improve this question Follow edited Apr 2 at 12:04 rozsazoltan 11k66 gold badges2020 silver badges5656 bronze badges asked Mar 6 at 15:59 Umer FarooqUmer Farooq 922 bronze badges 2

• Do you have NPX running (you should if your NPM version is 5.2.0 or higher)? You can test in you terminal: which npx - should give you the path if installed – Luckyfella Commented Mar 6 at 16:30
• This question is similar to: Problem installing TailwindCSS with Vite, after "npx tailwindcss init -p" mand. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem. – rozsazoltan Commented Apr 2 at 12:04

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2 Answers 2

Sorted by: Reset to default 9

Maybe you are using v4 of Tailwind, which does not use init, but this instead:

npm install tailwindcss @tailwindcss/vite

https://tailwindcss./docs/installation/using-vite

Version 3.4 uses this:

npm install -D tailwindcss@3
npx tailwindcss init

https://v3.tailwindcss./docs/installation

Tailwind released version 4 in January of 2025 and the installation has changed quite a bit from the older version 3.x. This error is caused by the conflict in how version 3.x and version 4.x are installed.

C:\Users\Olusola\Documents\Portfolios\inperson\frontend>npx tailwindcss init 
-p
npm error could not determine executable to run
npm error A plete log of this run can be found in: 
C:\Users\Olusola\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2025-04-02T03_40_54_327Z- 
debug-0.log

The mand npx tailwindcss init -p works correctly for version 3.x. If you check the log file, you'll find leads as to what the issue might be. The most important lines are the following:

line 7 verbose title npm exec tailwindcss init -p
line 8 verbose argv "exec" "--" "tailwindcss" "init" "-p" 
line 14 verbose stack Error: could not determine executable to run
line 15 verbose pkgid [email protected]

Note that the initial mand npm -D tailwindcss postcss autoprefixer always installs the latest version of tailwindcss in your devDependencies in the package.json file. In my case, it is:

"devDependencies": {
 ...
 "tailwindcss": "^4.1.0",
 }

SUMMARY: If you want to use version 3.x, use the following mand:

npm install -D tailwindcss@3 postcss auto-prefixer
npx tailwindcss init -p 

If you want version 4.x, use this mand instead:

npm install tailwindcss @tailwindcss/vite