The @source Directive

@source lives in your input CSS. Its inline() forms add or remove class candidates and work everywhere. Its path forms name the template files to scan for class names; only the CLI scans files, and it does not yet apply the paths you give it (see How paths are used).

@import "tailwindcss";
@source "./templates";

@source directives are read during compilation and removed from the output — they never appear in the generated CSS. Paths must be quoted, and both single and double quotes are accepted.

Paths, globs, and negation

The path form accepts a directory, a glob, or a negated path, and the directives accumulate:

@source "./templates";              /* a directory */
@source "./components/**/*.php";    /* a glob */
@source not "./templates/legacy";   /* an exclusion */

How paths are used

The compiler records every path directive in the sources list of the array that TailwindPHP\compile() returns, as ['base' => …, 'pattern' => …, 'negated' => …] with base taken from the base compile option. It never reads files itself.

• tw::generate(), tw::compile(), and TailwindCompiler compile only the content you pass in. Path directives have no effect there.
• The CLI reads sources, but in the current release it scans the input file's directory recursively for every non-negated path, whatever the path or glob says, and skips not paths entirely, so they exclude nothing (#8). What the CLI scans has the details and a layout that works today.

Inline candidates

@source inline(...) forces classes into the output even when they never appear in scanned files — useful for class names assembled dynamically at runtime:

@source inline("flex p-4 m-2");

Inline candidates support variants too:

@source inline("hover:bg-blue-500 focus:ring-2");

Brace expansion

Inline patterns expand brace groups, so you can enumerate many candidates compactly:

@source inline("p-{1,2,4}");
/* Generates p-1, p-2, and p-4 */

@source inline("text-{red,blue}-500");
/* Generates text-red-500 and text-blue-500 */

Ignored inline candidates

@source not inline(...) does the opposite of inline() — it strips matching candidates from the output even if they were found in your content. Brace expansion works here as well:

@source not inline("legacy");
@source not inline("p-{1,2}");

Validation rules

@source is a statement, not a block. The compiler rejects:

• A directive with a body — @source cannot have a body.
• A nested directive (inside @media, for example) — @source cannot be nested.
• An unquoted path — @source paths must be quoted.

/* Invalid — throws "`@source` cannot have a body." */
@source "./src" {
    .some-style { color: red; }
}

/* Invalid — throws "`@source` paths must be quoted." */
@source ./src;

See the CLI for file-based builds, and Imports for resolving @import and virtual modules.