Tailwind CSS executable missing on Windows 11 for versions above 3.4.17

[JoannaBraccini]

Description:
I'm experiencing an issue with Tailwind CSS versions above 3.4.17 on Windows 11. The executable cannot be found by npm/npx after installation.

Environment:
OS: Windows 11
Node.js: v22.14.0
npm: 11.4.2
Tailwind CSS: versions above 3.4.17 (works fine on 3.4.17)

Steps to reproduce:

npm init -y
npm i -D tailwindcss
npx tailwindcss init

Observed behavior:
When running npx tailwindcss init, I get this error:

npm error could not determine executable to run
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\Joanna\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2025-06-19T20_34_52_292Z-debug-0.log

Additionally, after installing versions above 3.4.17, listing the files in node_modules/.bin does not show the tailwindcss executables. I only see:

autoprefixer*      browserslist*      nanoid*      update-browserslist-db*
autoprefixer.cmd   browserslist.cmd   nanoid.cmd   update-browserslist-db.cmd   
autoprefixer.ps1*  browserslist.ps1*  nanoid.ps1*  update-browserslist-db.ps1*

Expected behavior:
With version 3.4.17, after installing via:

npm install -D [email protected]

the executables appear correctly in node_modules/.bin:

tailwind*      tailwind.cmd      tailwind.ps1*     tailwindcss*  tailwindcss.cmd  tailwindcss.ps1*

and npx tailwindcss init works as expected.

Additional notes:

The problem does not occur with Tailwind CSS 3.4.17

2025-06-19T20_34_52_292Z-debug-0.log

.
I have already tried removing node_modules, reinstalling dependencies, and clearing the npm cache. Added the mentioned log for review.

[wongjn]

For v4, the CLI interface has been moved to a separate package, @tailwindcss/cli. Furthermore, the init command no longer exists in v4. Consider checking the installation documentation that is most relevant to your project to integrate Tailwind CSS.

[JoannaBraccini]

Thank you!