Expo Skills

# Expo Skills: setup notes

This kit holds setup notes written by Mindket. It does not contain the skills, their reference files or their scripts. Those install from Expo’s repository: https://github.com/expo/skills

License: MIT, Copyright (c) 2025-present 650 Industries, Inc. (aka Expo). Full text: https://github.com/expo/skills/blob/main/LICENSE

Expo Skills is made by Expo. Its README calls them “Official AI agent skills from the Expo team”. Mindket lists the project and is not Expo.

The pages these notes came from: the README (https://github.com/expo/skills/blob/main/README.md), the plugin READMEs for expo and expo-experiments under https://github.com/expo/skills/tree/main/plugins, each skill’s SKILL.md under plugins/expo/skills and plugins/expo-experiments/skills, the plugin manifests and .mcp.json, skills.sh.json, and Expo’s MCP page (https://docs.expo.dev/eas/ai/mcp/). Facts about where Claude Code loads plugins come from Claude Code’s own docs, named where they are used. Mindket copied every command and ran none of them.

## What it is

Twenty-four skills for AI coding agents that work on Expo apps. The README lists them under four headings, which keep free and paid work apart: one router, fifteen open-source framework skills, seven skills for paid Expo Application Services (EAS), and one experimental skill. The README says Expo’s documentation, Expo CLI and EAS CLI stay the source of truth, and the skills help an agent apply them correctly.

| Skill | What it covers | Cost note |
|---|---|---|
| expo-overview | The entry point and router for any Expo or EAS task, plus the shared setup rules | Free |
| expo-project-structure | A folder layout for a new Expo Router app. It never restructures an existing app | Free |
| expo-router | File-based routes, links, native stacks, modals, form sheets, native tabs, headers and search bars | Free |
| expo-animation | Animations and gestures with Reanimated, Gesture Handler, Expo Router and haptics. Written with Emil Kowalski | Free |
| expo-native-ui | Native-feeling screens: Apple HIG styling, semantic colors, controls, icons, media and visual effects | Free |
| expo-design-system | A token theme, component conventions and audits for style drift | Free |
| expo-ui | @expo/ui native components, with SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose. The universal layer needs SDK 56 or later | Free |
| expo-data-fetching | API calls, React Query, SWR, caching, offline support and Expo Router data loaders | Free |
| expo-dom | DOM components, which run web code in a webview on native | Free |
| expo-web-to-native | Migrating an existing web React app to native, screen by screen | Free |
| expo-module | Native modules and views with Swift, Kotlin and TypeScript, config plugins and autolinking | Free |
| expo-brownfield | Adding Expo or React Native to an existing iOS or Android app | Free |
| expo-dev-client | Development clients | Local builds are free, EAS Build and TestFlight are paid |
| expo-examples | The expo/examples repository of about 70 with-* integrations | Free |
| expo-app-clip | An iOS App Clip target, AASA files and associated domains | Needs an Apple Developer Program membership |
| expo-upgrade | Expo SDK upgrades, dependency conflicts and deprecated packages | Free |
| eas-app-stores | EAS builds and submissions to TestFlight, the App Store and Google Play, plus listing metadata | EAS plan limits, and separate Apple and Google memberships |
| eas-hosting | Deploying Expo websites and Expo Router API routes to EAS Hosting | EAS service with free-tier limits |
| eas-workflows | EAS Workflow YAML files and CI/CD automation | EAS minutes, and paid store accounts for build and submit jobs |
| eas-observe | EAS Observe setup and launch, route, event and version metrics | Free plan allows up to 10,000 monthly active users, with fewer features |
| eas-update | EAS Update setup, publishing, runtime compatibility and debugging | On the Free plan, with allowances |
| eas-update-insights | Update health: crash rates, launch counts, payload size and rollout gates | Part of EAS Update |
| eas-simulator | A remote iOS simulator or Android emulator on EAS cloud, driven from the CLI or an agent | Experimental and limited access, with a session time limit |
| expo-migrate-module | Migrating a Swift Expo module from the Modules API 1.0 DSL to the 2.0 macros | Free, in the separate expo-experiments plugin |

Source: the README’s four tables and the cost note that opens each EAS skill’s SKILL.md. Prices change, so read https://expo.dev/pricing for any amounts.

## Files in this kit

- setup/claude-code.md: the Claude Code plugin, the experimental plugin, and a first-time machine
- setup/codex.md: the Codex plugin
- setup/other-agents.md: the skills CLI for Cursor, OpenCode, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Gemini, Cline, AMP, Factory Droid, Antigravity, Kiro CLI and similar tools
- setup/expo-mcp-server.md: the Expo MCP server that the plugin registers, and how to add it on its own
- setup/first-run.md: the shared rules in expo-overview, EAS login and linking, and what each paid skill says it costs

## What you need first

- Node, for the skills CLI route (it runs through npx) and for Expo’s own commands.
- An Expo project, or a new one from `npx create-expo-app@latest`, which expo-overview names.
- Claude Code or Codex for the plugin routes. Other agents use the skills CLI.
- An Expo account and EAS CLI for the seven EAS skills and the Expo MCP server.
- An Apple Developer Program membership and a Google Play account for store submissions. They are separate from Expo.

## What installs where

- Claude Code plugin: Claude Code’s page on hosting a marketplace (https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugins/host-marketplace) says it copies a plugin into its own cache. Its skills run under the plugin’s name (setup/claude-code.md).
- Codex plugin: it installs from the OpenAI-curated marketplace, and the README says updates come through it (setup/codex.md).
- Skills CLI: the README says the CLI asks where to install the skills. Run it from the project root, then restart or refresh the agent session (setup/other-agents.md).

## Your data

The skills are text, plus two small scripts. expo-ui’s list-components.js reads the @expo/ui package installed in your project and prints its component names. eas-workflows’ fetch.js downloads the pages that skill names, such as the workflow schema and Expo’s docs, and caches them in a .cache folder beside the script, for as long as the server’s cache headers allow or 15 minutes when it sends none. The skills tell the agent to run Expo and EAS commands on your machine and, for the EAS skills, to read and change things in your Expo account. The expo plugin also registers Expo’s hosted MCP server, which needs an Expo account sign-in and can start EAS builds and workflows (setup/expo-mcp-server.md). Every skill ends with an instruction to send feedback to Expo with `npx --yes @expo/agent-cli@latest feedback`, but only when the agent has something specific to report. It also asks the agent to send a brief report, with `--category evals`, when it keeps failing at an Expo task or you have to step in. If you do not want a report sent, tell your agent so. The skills CLI collects anonymous telemetry unless you set DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1. Code you hand your agent goes to your AI provider as in any other work with it.

## Update and remove

The README says Claude Code and Codex plugin installs update through their official marketplaces. For skills CLI installs it gives `npx skills@latest update`, and `npx skills@latest update expo-router` for one skill. It gives no removal step. Claude Code’s plugin page says the Installed tab in /plugin lists each plugin with actions to update or uninstall it.

README.md  8 KB
setup/claude-code.md  4 KB
setup/codex.md  2 KB
setup/expo-mcp-server.md  3 KB
setup/first-run.md  5 KB
setup/other-agents.md  2 KB