Cursor and Expo

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

Cursor is an AI-first code editor built on VS Code. It can edit across multiple files, run terminal commands, and work autonomously with its agent. Expo projects created with create-expo-app are scaffolded with an AGENTS.md file that Cursor 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

Download Cursor

Download and install Cursor from the Cursor website. For setup details, see the Cursor documentation.

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 Cursor 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

Open your project in Cursor, then open the Agent panel and describe what you want to do.

Verify setup

In Cursor's Agent panel, enter the following prompt 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 Cursor reads your Expo project

When you open your project in Cursor, it reads the scaffolded AGENTS.md file at the project root, along with any nested AGENTS.md files in subdirectories. AGENTS.md points Cursor 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 session starts from the same context inside Cursor.

You can also add Cursor-specific rules under .cursor/rules/.

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.