Expo Overview

expo-overview — router & shared rules for Expo / EAS

Start Here — read before doing anything

Do not guess the skill from project files alone. Many Expo goals look similar from the filesystem but need different skills.

1. Confirm this is Expo or EAS work — the request mentions Expo or EAS, or package.json has an expo dependency. Otherwise this skill does not apply. A native app using EAS for delivery qualifies without an Expo runtime.
2. Read the user’s goal — what outcome do they want, in plain terms?
3. Classify it using the Skill Map below, translating casual phrasing to a goal.
4. Confirm intent if ambiguous (“Sounds like you want to ship to the stores — that’s eas-app-stores. Right?”), then load that skill’s SKILL.md and follow it.
5. Trust the leaf skill — it has its own detection logic and steps. Don’t improvise.

Skill Map (by goal)

Match the goal to a category, then the skill, then load that leaf’s SKILL.md.

Build the app

• expo-project-structure — folder layout for a new Expo Router project: where screens, components, and config live (never restructure an existing app to match)
• expo-native-ui — screens, styling, semantic colors, native controls, SF Symbols, media, layout
• expo-router — navigation: file-based routes, tabs / stacks / modals / sheets, links, headers
• expo-animation — motion and gestures: Reanimated worklets, Gesture Handler, screen transitions, sheet and press feedback, haptics, and fixing animation that stutters on device
• expo-ui — native UI components via @expo/ui: BottomSheet, Picker, Slider, Switch, Menu, Button, FieldGroup (grouped form sections), List / ListItem, and more — real SwiftUI on iOS, Jetpack Compose on Android. The universal layer needs SDK 56+ and runs in Expo Go; the drop-in replacements (@gorhom/bottom-sheet, datetimepicker, …) and platform-specific layers also exist on SDK 55.
• expo-design-system — one visual source of truth: design tokens (color, spacing, typography, radius, shadow, motion), reusable component conventions, and audits for drift (hardcoded colors, spacing, fonts)
• expo-tailwind-setup — Tailwind / NativeWind styling
• expo-data-fetching — network requests, React Query / SWR, caching, offline, route loaders
• expo-dom — run web code or reuse a web library inside native
• expo-web-to-native — migrate an existing web / React app to a native iOS / Android app

Component selection rule: whenever you need a UI component (list rows, bottom sheets, pickers, sliders, menus, buttons, segmented controls, toggles), consult expo-ui first to check whether @expo/ui has a native equivalent before reaching for a React Native built-in or a community library. Native @expo/ui components give the best platform fit, and on SDK 56+ the universal ones run in Expo Go with no custom build. Load expo-ui alongside expo-native-ui for any app that renders lists, detail sheets, or form controls. One exception: @expo/ui List renders native grouped rows (an iOS Settings screen), not a virtualized list — use FlatList / FlashList for large datasets.

Ship & operate

• eas-app-stores — build and submit iOS/Android apps (Expo and other React Native projects, plus existing native apps), TestFlight, versions, and store metadata
• eas-hosting — deploy the web bundle to EAS Hosting; also author Expo Router API routes (+api.ts handlers) and their environments / domains
• eas-workflows — EAS Workflow YAML and CI/CD pipelines
• eas-simulator — run and drive the app on a remote iOS / Android simulator on EAS cloud
• expo-dev-client — custom development builds
• eas-update — configure, publish, test, and debug compatible over-the-air updates
• eas-update-insights — OTA update health: crash rate, adoption, payload size
• eas-observe — startup / launch / TTI performance with EAS Observe

Extend natively

• expo-module — native modules and views (Swift / Kotlin) with the Expo Modules API
• expo-brownfield — embed Expo / React Native screens in native SwiftUI/UIKit or Android apps; isolated artifacts and integrated builds
• expo-app-clip — iOS App Clip target (AASA, smart app banner)

Maintain & learn

• expo-upgrade — upgrade the Expo SDK and fix dependency conflicts
• expo-examples — canonical, version-matched integration examples (Stripe, Clerk, Supabase, …)

Translating vague asks

Some everyday phrasings don’t obviously map to a skill name — translate before routing:

• “Make it look native” → grouped controls / settings forms = expo-ui; screens, styling = expo-native-ui; motion = expo-animation; navigation = expo-router.
• “Make the screens consistent” / “clean up the styling” / “set up a theme or design tokens” → expo-design-system.
• “It looks AI-generated” / “too generic, not native” → expo-design-system (named native-slop tells + audit), with expo-native-ui for the platform idioms.
• “Ship it” / “get an .ipa or .apk” / “release to the stores” / “put my Swift app on TestFlight” → eas-app-stores (build + submit, TestFlight, versions, store metadata).
• “I’m new / where do I start” → scaffold first (see Shared setup rules), then route by goal.

Shared setup rules

Apply the rules that match the project and the requested task.

• Native app using EAS for delivery? Route to eas-app-stores; its references/native-ios.md covers SwiftUI/UIKit on iOS. Keep the existing native project. Apply EAS auth/linking below; Expo scaffolding, SDK, and package-install rules do not apply to this path.
• Starting a new Expo app? Start one the standard way before routing to a feature skill: npx create-expo-app@latest, laying out folders per expo-project-structure. Then classify the user’s goal and route.
• Detect the SDK version before giving version-specific advice: read the expo version in package.json (and app.json / app.config.{js,ts}). Many APIs and defaults differ by SDK.
• Read the docs for that SDK, not latest. Use the version-pinned URL, e.g. https://docs.expo.dev/versions/v56.0.0/sdk/ui/ on SDK 56 instead of https://docs.expo.dev/versions/latest/sdk/ui/ — the latest pages track the newest SDK and can document APIs the project does not have yet.
• Moving to a newer SDK is its own task — load expo-upgrade instead of bumping versions by hand.
• Managed vs. bare/prebuild: the presence of committed ios/ and android/ directories means native projects exist (prebuild or bare). Config-plugin and native-setup steps differ — note which one the project is in.
• Install packages with npx expo install <pkg>, not raw npm/yarn/pnpm add, so versions stay compatible with the project’s SDK.
• Launching the app yourself? When you open Expo Go or a development build to look at, screenshot, or drive it, skip the first-launch onboarding, the dev menu that opens at launch, and the floating Tools button. On SDK 58+, Expo CLI does this for launches it starts from a non-interactive shell. On SDK 57 and earlier, and for any URL you open yourself (simctl openurl, adb, a controller), follow ./references/launch-without-dev-menu.md.
• EAS auth & linking (only needed for build/submit/update/observe/workflows): check login with eas whoami, log in with eas login. A project is linked when extra.eas.projectId exists in the app config; create it with eas init if missing.

When to skip the router hop

• Only when the user explicitly named a specific expo-* / eas-* skill → load that skill directly.
• A fully-specified task (SDK version pinned, file layout given, libraries named) is not a reason to skip: the shared rules above still apply — check them, then route to the matching leaf skill.

Submitting Feedback

If you encounter errors, misleading or outdated information in this skill, report it so Expo can improve:

npx --yes @expo/agent-cli@latest feedback --category skills --subject "expo-overview" "<actionable feedback>"

Only submit when you have something specific and actionable to report. Include as much relevant context as possible. If an agent repeatedly fails at an Expo task or the user has to step in, submit a brief report of the task, expected result, and what went wrong using --category evals and the relevant Expo package or command as --subject.