Tailwind CSS Patterns That Scale: CVA, Design Tokens, Dark Mode, and Component Architecture

Tailwind CSS gets criticized for making HTML verbose. That criticism misses the point. The real productivity gain is eliminating the cognitive overhead of naming things and switching files. These patterns keep your Tailwind components readable and maintainable. Class Variance Authority (CVA) CVA is the missing piece for component variants in Tailwind: import { cva, type VariantProps } from 'class-variance-authority' const button = cva( 'inline-flex items-center justify-center rounded-md font-medium transition-colors focus-visible:outline-none focus-visible:ring-2 disabled:opacity-50 disabled:pointer-events-none', { variants: { variant: { default: 'bg-blue-600 text-white hover:bg-blue-700', destructive: 'bg-red-600 text-white hover:bg-red-700', outline: 'border border-gray-300 hover:bg-gray-100', ghost: 'hover:bg-gray-100 hover:text-gray-900', }, size: { sm: 'h-8 px-3 text-sm', md: 'h-10 px-4', lg: 'h-12 px-6 text-lg', }, }, defaultVariants: { variant: 'default', size: 'md', }, } ) inte