Supercharge Your Expo Development with Create Expo Stack

Hey everyone! Today, I’m excited to share a game-changing tool that’s transformed how I start my React Native projects: Create Expo Stack.

If you’ve ever spent hours configuring a new React Native project, wrestling with TypeScript setup, navigation configuration, and styling libraries, this post is for you!

What is Create Expo Stack?

Create Expo Stack is your personal project setup assistant. It’s a powerful CLI tool that helps you create fully configured React Native projects with Expo. The best part? You get to choose exactly what you want in your stack, and it handles all the configuration automatically.

What Can It Configure For You?

• TypeScript configuration ✨
• Navigation setup (React Navigation or Expo Router) 🧭
• Styling solutions (NativeWind, Tamagui) 🎨
• Authentication (Firebase, Supabase) 🔐
• And much more!

Getting Started

The beauty of Create Expo Stack is that you don’t need to install anything permanently. Just run:

npx create-expo-stack

That’s it! No global installations needed. 🎉

Setting Up Your Project: A Step-by-Step Guide

Let’s walk through creating a new project with all the bells and whistles:

1. Project Initialization

npx create-expo-stack

2. Configuration Choices

The CLI will guide you through several choices. Here’s what I typically select:

? What is your project named? » awesome-expo-app
? Would you like to use TypeScript? » Yes
? Which navigation solution would you like to use? » Expo Router
? Would you like to use navigation TypeScript template? » Yes
? Which styling solution would you like to use? » NativeWind
? Would you like to use authentication? » Firebase
? Which package manager would you like to use? » npm

3. What You Get

After the setup completes, you’ll have a project structure like this:

awesome-expo-app/
├── app/
│   ├── (tabs)/
│   │   ├── index.tsx
│   │   ├── profile.tsx
│   │   └── settings.tsx
│   ├── _layout.tsx
│   └── index.tsx
├── components/
├── utils/
│   └── firebase.ts
├── .env
├── tailwind.config.js
├── tsconfig.json
└── package.json

Key Features Deep Dive

TypeScript Configuration

Your project comes with TypeScript pre-configured with the best practices:

// app/index.tsx
import { View, Text } from "react-native";

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <View className="flex-1 items-center justify-center">
      <Text className="text-xl font-bold">Welcome to your new app!</Text>
    </View>
  );
}

Navigation Setup

If you choose Expo Router, you get a file-based routing system:

// app/(tabs)/_layout.tsx
import { Tabs } from "expo-router";

export default function TabLayout() {
  return (
    <Tabs>
      <Tabs.Screen
        name="index"
        options={{
          title: "Home",
        }}
      />
      <Tabs.Screen
        name="profile"
        options={{
          title: "Profile",
        }}
      />
    </Tabs>
  );
}

Styling with NativeWind

NativeWind gives you the power of Tailwind in React Native:

// components/Button.tsx
import { TouchableOpacity, Text } from "react-native";

export function Button({ title }: { title: string }) {
  return (
    <TouchableOpacity className="bg-blue-500 px-4 py-2 rounded-lg">
      <Text className="text-white font-medium">{title}</Text>
    </TouchableOpacity>
  );
}

Firebase Integration

If you choose Firebase, you get a pre-configured setup:

// utils/firebase.ts
import { initializeApp } from "firebase/app";
import { getAuth } from "firebase/auth";

const firebaseConfig = {
  // Your Firebase config
};

export const app = initializeApp(firebaseConfig);
export const auth = getAuth(app);

Pro Tips 🚀

1. Environment Variables: Your .env file is already set up and configured with the necessary Firebase variables:

FIREBASE_API_KEY=your-api-key
FIREBASE_AUTH_DOMAIN=your-auth-domain
FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID=your-project-id

2. Type Safety: The template includes all necessary type definitions, so you get full TypeScript support out of the box.

3. Styling Setup: NativeWind is configured with a custom tailwind.config.js that works perfectly with React Native:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  content: ["./app/**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}", "./components/**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}"],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  plugins: [],
};

When to Use Create Expo Stack

✅ Perfect for:

• Starting new projects quickly
• MVPs and prototypes
• Learning React Native with a solid foundation
• Team projects that need consistent setup

⚠️ Maybe skip if:

• You need a very specific custom configuration
• You’re adding to an existing project
• You’re building a very simple one-screen app

Wrap Up

Create Expo Stack has become my go-to tool for starting new React Native projects. It saves hours of setup time and provides a solid foundation with best practices built in.

Remember, the tool is flexible - you can always add or remove features after the initial setup. It’s just giving you a head start! 🚀

Happy coding! Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried Create Expo Stack and what your experience has been like!