Claude Code and Expo

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Use Claude Code to build, upgrade, debug, and deploy your Expo and React Native projects.

Claude Code is Anthropic's terminal-based AI coding agent. It can understand your entire codebase, propose edits, run terminal commands, and manage git operations. Expo projects created with create-expo-app are scaffolded with files for Claude Code through CLAUDE.md and .claude/settings.json. It can also check EAS and Expo CLI logs, fetch documentation from the Expo Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server, use Expo Skills for best practices, manage your EAS deployment workflow, and more.

Quick start

Install Claude Code

Install Claude Code globally, then start it from any project. For other install methods, see the Claude Code documentation.

Terminal

- curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Create a new Expo project

Create a project with the following command or ensure your existing project has the latest expo package installed.

Terminal

- npx create-expo-app@latest --template default@sdk-56

Set up Expo Skills and the Expo MCP Server

Install Expo Skills and connect the Expo MCP Server so Claude Code knows Expo conventions and can reach your EAS.

Expo Skills

Install the plugin that teaches agents known-good Expo patterns, and browse the full list of available skills.

Expo MCP Server

Connect the remote Expo MCP Server to give agents live access to Expo documentation and EAS.

Open your project and start prompting

Run Claude Code from your project root, then describe what you want to do.

Terminal

- cd my-app

- claude

Verify setup

Paste the following prompt in your Claude Code session to confirm it can read your project:

Example prompt

Open package.json and tell me which Expo SDK version this project targets.

If the agent replies with the SDK version from package.json, the agent is reading your project correctly.

How Claude Code reads your Expo project

When you start Claude Code in your project, it reads two of the scaffolded files:

CLAUDE.md contains a single line: @AGENTS.md. This line imports AGENTS.md into Claude Code's context. AGENTS.md points Claude Code to the documentation for your project's Expo SDK version. Add project-level instructions to AGENTS.md, not CLAUDE.md, so they stay in one place.
.claude/settings.json enables the official Expo plugin (expo@claude-plugins-official) from the Claude Code plugin marketplace.

Both files are committed to your project, so a developer's Claude Code session starts from the same context.

Example prompts

After setup, describe Expo tasks in plain language. For example:

Task	Example prompt
Upgrade the SDK	Upgrade this project to the latest Expo SDK and fix any breaking changes.
Add navigation	Add a tab navigator with Expo Router and a new settings screen.
Automate builds	Create an EAS Workflow that builds the app on every pull request.
Debug a build	My latest iOS build failed. Read the EAS Build logs and tell me what went wrong.
Add notifications	Configure expo-notifications and show a local notification when the app launches.
Set up CI/CD	Create a CI/CD workflow that builds on every PR.
Add native UI	Add a SwiftUI picker component to my Expo app.
Check feedback	Show TestFlight feedback for my app.
Verify the UI	Take a screenshot and verify the blue circle view.

For more examples, see the Example prompts sections of Expo Skills and Expo MCP Server.

Troubleshooting

Plugin 'expo' is enabled in project settings but isn't installed here.

If you see this error in your Claude Code session, then you need to install the official Expo plugin on your developer machine. To install it, run the following command in the terminal window and then restart your Claude Code session:

Terminal

- claude plugin install expo@claude-plugins-official

The above command installs the Expo plugin globally. If you want to install it just for this project, add --scope project to the command:

Terminal

- claude plugin install expo@claude-plugins-official --scope project