Codex and Expo

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

Codex is OpenAI's terminal-based AI coding agent. It can read and write files across your project, run terminal commands, and browse the web. Expo projects created with create-expo-app are scaffolded with an AGENTS.md file that Codex reads directly. 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 Codex

Install Codex, then start it from any project. For other install methods, see the Codex CLI documentation.

Terminal

- curl -fsSL https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.sh | sh

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 Codex 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 Codex from your project root, then describe what you want to do.

Terminal

- cd my-app

- codex

Verify setup

Paste the following prompt in your Codex 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 Codex reads your Expo project

When you start Codex in your project, it reads the scaffolded AGENTS.md file. This file points Codex to the documentation for your project's Expo SDK version and holds any project-level instructions you add.

AGENTS.md is committed to your project, so a developer's Codex 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.