Development Environment

This guide lists everything you need to get started with React Native – VS Code, Node.js, and Expo Go.

VS Code

We strongly recommend using VS Code to work on our React Native apps. Please install the Prettier extension for automatic code formatting. The Tailwind CSS IntelliSense extension is also helpful for autocompleting style classes.

Format on Save

Enable Format on Save in VS Code settings to automatically fix the formatting every time you save a file.

To verify your formatter is configured correctly, open a poorly formatted document and press Ctrl+Shift+I (or search for the Format Document option). If it asks which formatter to use, select Prettier.

Node.js/NPM

We’ll use a node version manager to make it easy to switch between Node.js versions as needed. Install the version manager, then use that to install the latest version of node.js.

Windows

1. Install the latest stable version of NVM for Windows. In most cases, you want to use the installer file ending in x86-setup.exe.
2. Open a command prompt, and run nvm install lts. This will install the latest supported version of Node.js.
3. If you can run node --version and it prints the version number without errors, then it’s installed correctly.

If you get a command not found error during any of these steps, try restarting your computer.

Mac/Linux

1. Follow the instructions to install NVM.
2. Open a terminal, and run nvm install --lts. This will install the latest supported version of Node.js.
3. If you can run node --version and it prints the version number without errors, then it’s installed correctly.

Expo Go

Install the Expo Go app on your phone. We’ll use this to test our apps in development mode. https://expo.dev/go