Getting Started

Pre-requisites

If you're already familiar with JavaScript, React Native and Webpack, then you'll be able to get moving quickly! Otherwise, it's highly recommended to get yourself familiar with these topic and then come back here:

Minimum requirements

  • Node.js >= 18.0.0
  • React Native >= 0.72.0
TIP

The information on this page might not always be up-to-date. Official support is provided for the latest version of React Native and its 2 previous versions, similar to how React Native is supported. If you're using older version of React Native, you can still try using Re.Pack, but you might need to adjust the configuration to make it work.

Note on Expo

Officially, Re.Pack doesn't support Expo. It might be possible to use Re.Pack in Expo projects, but it would require more work and setup. We welcome anyone who would like to contribute and bring Expo support to Re.Pack.

Examples

If you get stuck or you want to explore beforehand, you can use the examples of React Native applications using Re.Pack here: https://github.com/callstack/repack-examples.

Installation

To create a new React Native project with Re.Pack or adapt an existing one:

[Optional] Initialize a new project using React Native Community CLI

npx react-native@latest init AwesomeProject --skip-install

Go to your React Native project root directory

cd AwesomeProject

Convert the project to use Re.Pack

npx @callstack/repack-init

In case your project structure differs from the default template, you can follow the manual installation steps down below.

DETAILS

By default, @callstack/repack-init will create webpack.config.mjs file in the root directory of your project. If you want to use .cjs format, you can pass --cjs flag to the command. You can read more about these formats down below.

Usage

After completing Installation you should be able to use Re.Pack's development server and bundle your application.

Keep in mind that, you might need to adjust Webpack config to your project in order for the application to work correctly. It's impossible for us to know what your project looks like and uses, so it's recommended to read through the Webpack config's code and comments and make sure you understand what's going on there.

Running development server

When developing your application, you want to run Re.Pack's development server to compile your source code with Webpack.

The recommended way is to use React Native Community CLI and run:

npm
yarn
pnpm
bun
npm run react-native start

or

npm
yarn
pnpm
bun
npm run react-native webpack-start

Bundling the app

When building the release version of your application via XCode, Gradle CLI or Android Studio, as long as you followed Configure XCode and Configure Android, it should use Re.Pack to bundle your application.

If you want to create bundle (development or production), the recommended way is to use React Native Community CLI and run:

npm
yarn
pnpm
bun
npm run react-native bundle

or

npm
yarn
pnpm
bun
npm run react-native webpack-bundle

Manual installation

If the automatic installation didn't work for any reason, or your project structure differs from the default React Native template, you can follow these manual installation steps:

1. Dependencies

Install required dependencies in your project:

npm
yarn
pnpm
bun
npm install -D webpack terser-webpack-plugin babel-loader @callstack/repack

This will install latest versions of Webpack, Re.Pack and dependencies used in Webpack config: terser-webpack-plugin for minification and babel-loader for transpiling the code.

If you already have Webpack or Re.Pack installed, you might want to check the compatibility table to ensure all dependencies are ok.

Once the dependencies are installed, you need to tell React Native Community CLI to add Re.Pack's commands.

2. Commands

Add the following content to react-native.config.js (or create it if it doesn't exist):

react-native.config.js
module.exports = {
  commands: require('@callstack/repack/commands'),
};

This will allow you to use Re.Pack when running react-native start and react-native bundle commands.

3. Webpack config

Create file webpack.config.mjs in the root directory of your project and paste the content from our Webpack config template.

INFO

We recommend to use ESM version of Webpack config with the .mjs extension. However, Re.Pack also supports ESM under .js and CJS variant under .js and .cjs extensions. Check our templates for CJS and ESM variants as well as the documentation on Webpack config to see the list of all available Webpack config location and extensions.

4. Configure XCode

When building release version of your application XCode project will still use Metro to bundle the application, so you need to adjust build settings to make XCode use Re.Pack instead.

Open your application's Xcode project/workspace and:

  1. Click on the project in Project navigator panel on the left
  2. Go to Build Phases tab
  3. Expand Bundle React Native code and images phase
  4. Add export BUNDLE_COMMAND=webpack-bundle to the phase

After the change, the content of this phase should look similar to:

Bundle React Native code and images
1set -e
2
3WITH_ENVIRONMENT="../node_modules/react-native/scripts/xcode/with-environment.sh"
4export BUNDLE_COMMAND=webpack-bundle
5REACT_NATIVE_XCODE="../node_modules/react-native/scripts/react-native-xcode.sh"
6
7/bin/sh -c "$WITH_ENVIRONMENT $REACT_NATIVE_XCODE"

5. Configure Android

When building release version of your application Gradle will still use Metro to bundle the application, so you need to adjust build settings to make Gradle use Re.Pack instead.

Open your application's Gradle project, usually located at android/app/build.gradle and add the following:

android/app/build.gradle
1react {
2    bundleCommand = "webpack-bundle"
3}