# Exploring TailwindCSS + Shadcn for UI in OpenMRS 3.x — thoughts?

**URL:** <https://talk.openmrs.org/t/exploring-tailwindcss-shadcn-for-ui-in-openmrs-3-x-thoughts/47222>\
**Category:** Ask OpenMRS\
**Tags:** ui, o3\
**Created:** [October 9, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/exploring-tailwindcss-shadcn-for-ui-in-openmrs-3-x-thoughts/47222 "2025-10-09T18:10:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kavinduudhara](https://talk.openmrs.org/user_avatar/talk.openmrs.org/kavinduudhara/32/20895_2.png) [@kavinduudhara](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/kavinduudhara)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/exploring-tailwindcss-shadcn-for-ui-in-openmrs-3-x-thoughts/47222/1 "2025-10-09T18:10:04Z")

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Hi everyone,

I’ve been exploring ways to modernize the OpenMRS 3.x frontend. Right now, some of the UI feels a bit rigid or dull, and I’m curious about experimenting with **TailwindCSS** and **Shadcn/ui** to give components (like buttons, popups, and panels) a fresher look.

I’m not aiming to make breaking changes — just exploring possibilities and seeing what could improve usability and visual consistency.

I’d love to hear your thoughts:

- Would the community be open to experimenting with Tailwind/Shadcn?

- Are there concerns or guidelines I should keep in mind?

- Any past experiments or lessons learned that I should know?

Thanks for sharing your perspective!

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**Author:** ![gcliff](https://talk.openmrs.org/user_avatar/talk.openmrs.org/gcliff/32/8783_2.png) [@gcliff](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/gcliff)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 9:39am UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/exploring-tailwindcss-shadcn-for-ui-in-openmrs-3-x-thoughts/47222/2 "2025-10-10T09:39:27Z")

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thanks @kavinduudhara , Tailwind sounds fun experimenting with it 🙂 ..

My concern is it can lead to verbose HTML with many utility classes, less flexibility for highly custom designs without configuration