Does tailwind work with bun isolated installs?

[Alvi24]

i have a bun monorepo and when using isolated installs the tailwind intellisense is not working
if changing to hoisted installs they it works correctly
maybe the tailwind extensions is not finding the tailwind package (because isolated installs symlink packages)?

[rajputomsingh]

Yes, this can happen with Bun isolated installs.

The Tailwind CSS IntelliSense extension resolves the Tailwind package by looking for it in the workspace dependency tree (usually through node_modules). With isolated installs, Bun creates a different dependency layout using symlinks, so the extension may fail to locate the Tailwind package correctly. That’s why IntelliSense works with hoisted installs but not with isolated ones.

A couple of workarounds:

1. Explicitly set the Tailwind config path in VS Code settings

"tailwindCSS.experimental.configFile": "./tailwind.config.ts"

2. Ensure Tailwind is installed in the workspace where IntelliSense runs
Sometimes adding tailwindcss as a dependency in the package that contains the config fixes resolution.

3. Restart the Tailwind IntelliSense server
Command palette → “Tailwind CSS: Restart Language Server”

If it still doesn't resolve correctly, it’s likely due to how the extension currently resolves dependencies and may need improved support for Bun’s isolated install structure.