Expo skill: expo-dev-client and the official Expo skills for agents

Source: expo/skills · Maintainer: Expo · License: MIT · Checked: 24 October 2026

What is the Expo skill?

The Expo skill most people install is expo-dev-client, one of Expo's official Agent Skills, which teaches your coding agent to build and run Expo development clients locally or through EAS Build and TestFlight. It belongs to a larger set in expo/skills that covers routing, UI, upgrades, native modules and EAS services.

Its SKILL.md description reads: "Build and distribute Expo development clients locally or via TestFlight for internal testing. For production TestFlight releases and store submission, use the eas-app-stores skill."

As of 24 October 2026, its skills.sh page listed 69.8K installs (snapshot, 24 October 2026), the highest of the skills currently in the repo. The README calls the collection "Official AI agent skills from the Expo team for building, deploying, upgrading, and debugging Expo apps."

What does it do?

The skill loads when you ask about development builds, testing native code on a device, or getting a build onto TestFlight for internal testing. Its SKILL.md opens with a cost note: "Free locally; cloud builds are paid." It then covers:

• When you need a dev client. "Development clients are the recommended setup for any real or production app." It lists the cases that require one: local Expo modules, Apple targets (widgets, app clips, extensions), third-party native modules not in Expo Go, and config plugins or testing remote push notifications and App/Universal Links.
• EAS configuration. A sample eas.json with a development profile that sets developmentClient: true and autoIncrement: true, plus appVersionSource: "remote".
• TestFlight in one command. eas build -p ios --profile development --submit builds in the cloud, submits to App Store Connect and emails you when the build is ready.
• Local builds. eas build -p ios --profile development --local (needs Xcode) or the Android equivalent, producing .ipa, .apk or .aab files, with install commands for a simulator, a device and Android.
• Connecting. npx expo start --dev-client, then scan the QR code or enter the Metro URL.
• Troubleshooting. eas credentials for signing errors and --clear-cache for stale builds.

It also explains how to launch the dev client without onboarding screens, so an agent can screenshot or drive it, with different steps for SDK 58 and later versus SDK 57 and earlier.

The folder has two files: SKILL.md and agents/openai.yaml, which gives Codex the display name "Expo Dev Client."

What other Expo skills are there?

The README sorts the skills into groups "so the free vs paid boundary is clear":

Expo's skills docs say expo-overview is the entry point to load before writing code or picking another skill. Older skill names such as building-native-ui and upgrading-expo still show install counts on skills.sh but are no longer in the repo.

How do you install it?

The README recommends the plugin for Claude Code and Codex, and the skills CLI for other agents.

Claude Code plugin (all Expo skills plus the Expo MCP server).

claude plugin install expo@claude-plugins-official

Or run /plugin install expo@claude-plugins-official inside Claude Code. It comes from Anthropic's official plugin marketplace, and updates arrive through it.

Codex plugin.

codex plugin add expo@openai-curated

Just this skill, with the skills CLI. The command on skills.sh:

npx skills add https://github.com/expo/skills --skill expo-dev-client

For every Expo skill, the README gives npx skills@latest add expo/skills --skill '*'. Run it from the project root and restart your agent. Skills land in .claude/skills/ in your project, or ~/.claude/skills/expo-dev-client/ with -g, the standard Claude Code skill locations. Update with npx skills@latest update.

Codex and Cursor read the same SKILL.md format; see Codex skills and Cursor skills. Expo's docs note that recent Cursor versions can import Expo skills you already installed for another agent, and that Cursor activates them by auto-discovery rather than the / menu.

How do you use it?

Ask about builds in plain words. Example prompts (suggestions, not quotes from the repo):

• Do I need a development client for this app, or is Expo Go enough? Check the dependencies.
• Set up eas.json with a development profile and build an iOS dev client for TestFlight.
• Build an Android dev client locally and install it on my emulator.
• My dev client build fails with a signing error. Fix it.

Requirements:

• An Expo project and EAS CLI (the sample config asks for version 16.0.1 or later).
• Xcode for local iOS builds.
• An Expo account with EAS build minutes for cloud builds (see Expo pricing).
• A paid Apple Developer account for device or TestFlight distribution.

Tips and limits

• Know where the costs start. Local builds are free; EAS cloud builds and TestFlight are paid steps. The skill says so before anything else.
• Production releases live elsewhere. For store submission, the skill hands off to eas-app-stores.
• Commands it runs. No scripts ship in the folder, but the agent runs eas build, xcrun simctl, adb and similar commands on your machine or account.
• Feedback command. The skill tells the agent it can report errors to Expo with npx --yes @expo/agent-cli@latest feedback. Watch for that if you don't want anything sent.
• Audits. On 24 October 2026, skills.sh showed Pass from Gen Agent Trust Hub, Socket and Snyk.
• License. MIT (the repo and the plugins/expo folder both carry it): copy and change it, keeping the copyright notice.

Save it in your Kipt library

In Kipt, open Skills and paste the skill's GitHub folder link into the import box; Kipt reads the SKILL.md and agents/openai.yaml. Paste the repo link instead and Kipt shows a list of Expo skills to pick from, such as expo-overview and expo-router. Your library stays in a private GitHub repo you own and installs into Claude Code or Codex with one command:

npx skills add https://github.com/<you>/<repo>.git --all -g

Kipt is not affiliated with Expo.

Similar skills

• React best practices skill: Vercel's React performance rules, useful for the shared logic in an Expo app.
• shadcn skill: component conventions for the web side of a React stack.
• Supabase skill: a common backend for Expo apps, with auth and RLS guidance.
• React Native skill: Vercel's React Native and Expo rules for lists, animation, navigation and native UI.