How do I combine !important and a selector strategy in Tailwind CSS to avoid conflicts with Bootstrap?

General Discussions
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1

I’m embedding a React application styled with Tailwind CSS into a larger CMS app that uses Bootstrap.

Naturally, there are utility class conflicts between the two frameworks.

To resolve this, I tried enabling the !important option in my Tailwind config like this:

module.exports = {
  important: true,
}

However, this causes layout issues since Bootstrap’s !important rules still override my Tailwind styles.

I also tried the selector strategy using:

important: '.tailwind-app'

But even then, some Bootstrap styles with !important are still taking precedence.

My goal is to increase specificity AND apply !important to all Tailwind classes, so Tailwind rules win without altering the component library that I’m importing.

Is there a supported way to combine both strategies, e.g. scope Tailwind under a selector like .tailwind-app and apply !important to every utility class?

Looking for clean solutions that preserve styles from external components without prefixing everything manually.

(Ref: Tailwind CSS GitHub Discussion #5080) (How to increase the specificity of tailwind util classes · tailwindlabs/tailwindcss · Discussion #5080 · GitHub)

2

I faced a similar conflict embedding Tailwind inside a Bootstrap-heavy app. Setting important: true in your Tailwind config applies !important to all utilities, but it doesn’t scope them, so Bootstrap’s own !important styles can still clash.

Using important: '.tailwind-app' scopes your Tailwind styles but doesn’t add the !important flag automatically.

Unfortunately, Tailwind’s config doesn’t support combining both out of the box (scoped selector and global !important). A neat workaround is to set:

important: '.tailwind-app',

then manually extend your Tailwind plugins or use a PostCSS plugin to append !important to utilities within that scope. This way, you get both the scope and the increased specificity via !important.

It’s a bit more setup but keeps your Tailwind styles winning without touching Bootstrap.

So, in short: Tailwind important config lets you add !important, but to combine it with selector strategy, you’ll need some custom build tooling.

3

When I embedded Tailwind CSS inside a Bootstrap environment, I ran into the exact problem. Setting important: true in Tailwind adds !important globally, but Bootstrap’s competing !important declarations still sometimes take over.

The selector strategy (important: '.tailwind-app') scopes your styles, but it doesn’t apply !important to every utility automatically. Right now, Tailwind’s config can only do one or the other out of the box.

The best supported way to combine both (scope + !important) is to:

  1. Use important: '.tailwind-app' in your Tailwind config

  2. Then post-process your CSS (via PostCSS plugin or custom script) to append !important to all Tailwind utilities under .tailwind-app

This approach respects the encapsulation you want and bumps up specificity with !important. It’s a bit manual but effective.

In other words, Tailwind important by itself can’t do both selector strategy and add !important to every rule at once, so a small custom step is needed.

4

I’ve been there , trying to make Tailwind’s utilities override Bootstrap’s styles can be tricky, especially when both use !important.

Tailwind’s important: true flag applies !important globally, but without scoping, Bootstrap’s own important rules sometimes win.

Tailwind’s selector-based important: '.tailwind-app' scopes your styles but does not add !important automatically, so you don’t get the full specificity boost.

Currently, the official Tailwind config doesn’t support combining these two strategies natively. If you want to scope Tailwind under a class AND have all utilities use !important, you’ll have to:

  1. Set important: '.tailwind-app' in your config

  2. Use a CSS post-processor or plugin to add !important declarations to the scoped utilities

This is the cleanest way to achieve both goals: scoped Tailwind important styles without manually prefixing classes or modifying Bootstrap.

So yes, tailwind important works great, but for combining with selector strategy, some custom tooling is your friend.