You can’t generate classes dynamically in Tailwind

I wanted to have a dynamic color in Tailwind, using a syntax like this in JSX:

bg-${color}-500

But it wasn’t applied to the page because Tailwind couldn’t find for example the text bg-red-500 in the code, so the code was not added to the final CSS.

Tailwind scans source files as plain text. It can generate bg-red-500 when that complete token exists in the source, but it cannot evaluate a template literal and infer every possible result.

Map each allowed value to a complete class name:

const colorClasses = {
  green: 'bg-green-500 text-white',
  blue: 'bg-blue-500 text-white',
  red: 'bg-red-500 text-white'
}

Then use the mapped class:

<h1 className={`mt-10 ${colorClasses[color] ?? ''}`}>
  Hello
</h1>

If a class cannot appear in your templates, Tailwind CSS v4 can explicitly include it with @source inline() in your CSS:

@import "tailwindcss";
@source inline("grid-cols-{1..3}");

Prefer the map when the value controls a component variant. It is easy to review, keeps invalid values out, and lets each variant use a different combination of utilities.