Add support for polyfill configuration in Vite plugin

[wongjn]

Reopen issue #20035

As discussed in PR #19942, it would be great if the Vite plugin exposed an option to configure polyfills.

Currently, when optimize: false is set and the project targets browsers through Vite instead, there does not seem to be a way to disable Tailwind’s generated polyfills.

I’d like to propose adding a polyfills option alongside optimize in the Vite plugin configuration. This would allow users to either disable polyfills entirely during compilation, or selectively keep only the ones they need.

[keshandinith4]

For anyone looking for a temporary workaround until this option is officially added, you can override or clean up Tailwind's polyfills by forcing Vite to target only modern browsers during the build phase.

If you configuration uses LightningCSS (which Vite supports natively), you can explicitly set modern browser targets in your vite.config.ts. This will strip out the unnecessary fallbacks and polyfills generated by Tailwind:

import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
import tailwindcss from '@tailwindcss/vite';

export default defineConfig({
plugins: [tailwindcss()],
css: {
transformer: 'lightningcss',
lightningcss: {
// Targets modern browsers only, effectively stripping out older polyfills
targets: {
chrome: (115 << 16),
safari: (17 << 16),
firefox: (115 << 16),
edge: (115 << 16)
}
}
}
});

While this gets the job done during Vite's bundling process, having a native polyfills: false or configuration option directly within the Tailwind Vite plugin would definitely be a much cleaner and expected solution. Upvoting this proposal!

[syedahmedx3]

For anyone tracking this feature request: The official implementation has been submitted in PR #20036 by @lubomirblazekcz.

The native polyfills configuration option has been fully added to the Vite plugin workspace, and all underlying CI pipelines and Linux integration test legs (cli, vite, oxide, postcss, etc.) are completely green and passing.

This issue is fully ready to be resolved and closed as soon as the core team reviews and merges the PR!

[marvellamykenzie26]

Have you considered how the polyfills option could affect the behavior of Tailwind’s JIT engine during development?

[gweneverebraydan26]

Regarding the proposed polyfills option, it would be useful to define how this interacts with Tailwind's JIT compilation. Specifically, will disabling polyfills affect the generation of utility classes that rely on modern CSS features, or will those classes still be included in the final output regardless of the polyfills setting?