error: unable to load on lsp startup

[agorgl]

What version of Tailwind CSS IntelliSense are you using?

0.14.29

What version of Tailwind CSS are you using?

4.1.18

Describe your issue

While the lsp seems to be working fine, the following error appears in neovim lsp logs when tailwindcss-language-server starts:

[START][2026-01-13 11:17:27] LSP logging initiated
[ERROR][2026-01-13 11:17:27] ...lsp/handlers.lua:562	"Error: unable to load\n    at Dg.startIfNeeded (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:14149)\n    at async Dg.scan (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:13838)\n    at async Sft (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:20629)\n    at async Ift (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:20359)\n    at async iD (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:22886)\n    at async rD.createProject (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:16665)\n    at async Promise.allSettled (index 0)\n    at async rD.search (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:14673)\n    at async ND._initFolder (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:3626:12643)\n    at async Promise.allSettled (index 0)"
[ERROR][2026-01-13 11:17:29] ...lsp/handlers.lua:562	"Error: unable to load\n    at Dg.startIfNeeded (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:14149)\n    at async Dg.scan (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:13838)\n    at async Sft (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:20629)\n    at async Ift (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:20359)\n    at async iD (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:1870:22886)\n    at async S (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:3622:13586)\n    at async P (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:3622:5444)\n    at async Object.x [as tryInit] (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:3622:5329)\n    at async ND._initFolder (/usr/bin/tailwindcss-language-server:3626:16879)\n    at async Promise.allSettled (index 0)"

[puschie286]

Same in webstorm - identical exceptions stack (Webstorm Issue).

Workaround: using tailwind-server 0.14.28

[thecrypticace]

For the WebStorm case at least this is a WebStorm bug and will have to be fixed on their end. WebStorm downloads it's own bundle that includes bin/tailwindcss-language-server from the npm package but nothing else:

However v0.14.29 and later look for oxide-helper.js in the bin folder which you can see when you install the @tailwindcss/language-server package from NPM:

So one of the newly required files is actually missing.

As for Neovim it could be a similar issue — though I would expect it to be using the NPM package directly. But basically that error in v0.14.29 should only happen if the helper is missing.

cc @RobinMalfait