Is theme.json still necessary? Can it be removed?

[aboutjquery]

from https://underscoretw.com/release-notes/january-2025/

Supporting theme.json variables in Tailwind 4
...
This approach both doesn’t work well (or at all) with Tailwind 4 and is made unnecessary by the switch to configuration variables.
...

So if its not work at all on tailwindcss 4, do I still need it? Or does it have another role in wordpress?

I just want to be as minimal as possible :)

[gregsullivan]

theme.json is an optional part of a WordPress theme, not part of Tailwind. If you're using the WordPress block editor, I would recommend keeping it. You can read more about it here:

https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/global-settings-and-styles/

The thing that has changed with Tailwind 4 is that _tw used to import the colours and widths from theme.json via a custom Tailwind plugin to be used within Tailwind. Now that is done more directly in the ./tailwind/tailwind-theme.css file.