Expo Guide

How to set up Tamagui with Expo

We've created a new template repo for starting an Expo Router based app based on the Expo 3 starter repo.

npm create tamagui@latest --template expo-router

There are also pre-made community Expo starters.

Install

Use this guide to set up Tamagui with Expo Native and Web.

To support dark mode, update your app.json to app.config.ts and set userInterfaceStyle to "automatic".

Native

Create a new Expo  project:

npx create-expo-app -t expo-template-blank-typescript

This guide assumes Expo is configured with TypeScript support.

  • The following steps are optional but useful for many apps, they enable the optimizing compiler, reanimated, as well as using process.env.XYZfor environment variables.

Add @tamagui/babel-plugin:

yarn @tamagui/babel-plugin

Update your babel.config.js to include the optional @tamagui/babel-plugin:

babel.config.js

module.exports = function (api) {
api.cache(true)
return {
presets: ['babel-preset-expo'],
plugins: [
[
'@tamagui/babel-plugin',
{
components: ['tamagui'],
config: './tamagui.config.ts',
logTimings: true,
disableExtraction: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development',
},
],
// NOTE: this is only necessary if you are using reanimated for animations
'react-native-reanimated/plugin',
],
}
}

If you're using a monorepo you probably want to use this Metro configuration.

Expo Router / Web

Add your tamagui.config.ts:

tamagui.config.ts

import { config } from '@tamagui/config/v3'
import { createTamagui } from 'tamagui'
export const tamaguiConfig = createTamagui(config)
export default tamaguiConfig
export type Conf = typeof tamaguiConfig
declare module 'tamagui' {
interface TamaguiCustomConfig extends Conf {}
}

Then update app/_layout.tsx:

app/_layout.tsx

import '../tamagui-web.css'
import { DarkTheme, DefaultTheme, ThemeProvider } from '@react-navigation/native'
import { Stack } from 'expo-router'
import { useColorScheme } from 'react-native'
import { TamaguiProvider } from 'tamagui'
import { tamaguiConfig } from '../tamagui.config'
export default function RootLayout() {
const colorScheme = useColorScheme()
return (
// add this
<TamaguiProvider config={tamaguiConfig} defaultTheme={colorScheme}>
<ThemeProvider value={colorScheme === 'dark' ? DarkTheme : DefaultTheme}>
<Stack>
<Stack.Screen name="(tabs)" options={{ headerShown: false }} />
<Stack.Screen name="modal" options={{ presentation: 'modal' }} />
</Stack>
</ThemeProvider>
</TamaguiProvider>
)
}

Setup Tamagui

From here on out you can follow the Installation and Configuration docs.

Loading fonts

Install the expo-font package:

npx expo install expo-font

Load your fonts for React Native to recognize them. There are several ways to do this:

Using the @tamagui/font-inter package which is a pre-configured version of the Inter font that works with Tamagui:

Import the useFonts hook and load the fonts:

App.tsx

import { useFonts } from 'expo-font'
function App() {
const [loaded] = useFonts({
Inter: require('@tamagui/font-inter/otf/Inter-Medium.otf'),
InterBold: require('@tamagui/font-inter/otf/Inter-Bold.otf'),
})
useEffect(() => {
if (loaded) {
// can hide splash screen here
}
}, [loaded])
if (!loaded) {
return null
}
return <MyApp />
}

For more information on loading fonts in Expo, see the Expo documentation .

First time starting Expo

The first time running your project with Tamagui, be sure to clear the cache:

Terminal

expo start -c

Your package.json scripts should look something like this:

package.json

{
"scripts": {
"start-native": "expo start -c",
"start-web": "expo start -c",
"android": "yarn expo run:android",
"ios": "yarn expo run:ios",
"web": "expo start --web"
}
}

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