Why don’t Tailwind CSS docs use the -D flag during installation?

[abhishekmardiya]

Inconsistency in Tailwind CSS installation: dependencies vs devDependencies

I was going through the official Tailwind CSS Next.js installation guides and noticed a small inconsistency:

• Tailwind docs:
  https://tailwindcss.com/docs/installation/framework-guides/nextjs
  → installs without -D

• Next.js docs:
  https://nextjs.org/docs/app/getting-started/css#tailwind-css
  → installs with -D (as devDependencies)

Why this is confusing

Tailwind CSS is generally a build-time tool, so installing it as a devDependency (as shown in Next.js docs) seems more accurate.

However, the Tailwind docs install it under regular dependencies, which can be misleading for developers trying to follow best practices.

Question

Is this difference intentional for simplicity/tooling reasons, or should Tailwind docs also recommend using -D for consistency?

Would be great to have clarity here to avoid confusion for developers.

[wongjn]

From a maintainer in Discord:

It just doesn't really matter. If you want it to be in your devDependencies then you can put it there 👍
Why the change was made? Just fewer characters and doesn't matter anyway.

[abhishekmardiya]

Thanks for the clarification!