Migrate Expo Router from SDK 55 to SDK 56

Learn how to migrate Expo Router from SDK 55 to 56 using a codemod or manually.

For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. Use this file to discover all available pages.

In SDK 56 and later, Expo Router no longer supports importing from external @react-navigation/* packages in application code. Update those imports to the matching expo-router entry points. The runtime API is unchanged - only the module specifiers move.

Automated migration

Run the codemod from the root of your project. It rewrites @react-navigation/* imports in your application code to the matching expo-router entry points.

Replace src with the directory or glob that contains your application code.

Manual migration

If you cannot run the codemod, repoint each import by hand:

// Before (SDK 55)
import { ThemeProvider, DarkTheme } from '@react-navigation/native';
import { createMaterialTopTabNavigator } from '@react-navigation/material-top-tabs';

// After (SDK 56)
import { ThemeProvider, DarkTheme } from 'expo-router/react-navigation';
import { createMaterialTopTabNavigator } from 'expo-router/js-top-tabs';

Use the following table to map each React Navigation import in your code to its expo-router equivalent:

Libraries

Many third-party libraries still import from @react-navigation/core. To ease the SDK 56 transition, Expo CLI automatically rewrites those imports to expo-router when they originate from node_modules. Your application code is unaffected by this rewrite.

This is a temporary compatibility shim. A dedicated library migration guide will explain the replacement before the automatic rewrite is removed.

To opt out, set EXPO_ROUTER_DISABLE_RN_NAVIGATION_CHECK=1 in your environment before starting the bundler. This also disables the bundler error for application code that imports from @react-navigation/*.