[eas-build] warn when creating a production build from Expo Go #3073

vonovak · 2025-06-25T08:25:30Z

Why

How

Added a function that detects Expo Go project through existing functionality and through looking for if expo-dev-client is installed.

If the project is Expo-Go based, and user attempts to create a production build, a warning is printed. The warning can be silenced via an env variable.

Test Plan

Tested locally in an Expo Go project, this is the result:

added a few automated tests

vonovak · 2025-06-25T08:25:48Z

[eas-build] warn when creating a production build from Expo Go #3073 👈 (View in Graphite)
main

This stack of pull requests is managed by Graphite. Learn more about stacking.

github-actions · 2025-06-25T08:28:44Z

Size Change: +2.22 kB (0%)

Total Size: 53.5 MB

Filename	Size	Change
`./packages/eas-cli/dist/eas-linux-x64.tar.gz`	53.5 MB	+2.22 kB (0%)

_{compressed-size-action}

github-actions · 2025-06-25T08:29:34Z

Subscribed to pull request

File Patterns	Mentions
*/	@sjchmiela

Generated by CodeMention

codecov · 2025-06-25T08:38:42Z

Codecov Report

Attention: Patch coverage is 65.00000% with 14 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.

Project coverage is 52.37%. Comparing base (ce8e098) to head (9107eb9).
Report is 2 commits behind head on main.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
...ges/eas-cli/src/project/discourageExpoGoForProd.ts	67.65%	11 Missing ⚠️
packages/eas-cli/src/build/createContext.ts	33.34%	2 Missing ⚠️
packages/eas-cli/src/build/runBuildAndSubmit.ts	50.00%	1 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main    #3073      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   52.33%   52.37%   +0.05%     
==========================================
  Files         604      605       +1     
  Lines       24120    24155      +35     
  Branches     4816     4820       +4     
==========================================
+ Hits        12620    12648      +28     
- Misses      11461    11468       +7     
  Partials       39       39

☔ View full report in Codecov by Sentry.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.
📦 JS Bundle Analysis: Save yourself from yourself by tracking and limiting bundle sizes in JS merges.

vonovak · 2025-06-25T08:45:33Z

packages/eas-cli/src/project/discourageExpoGoForProd.ts

+import type { ProfileData } from '../utils/profiles';
+import type { Client } from '../vcs/vcs';
+
+const envVarName = 'EAS_BUILD_NO_EXPO_GO_WARNING';


looking for opinion on whether this is a good name

sjchmiela

I'll reassign this to Brent. Left some code suggestions.

sjchmiela · 2025-06-25T20:33:16Z

packages/eas-cli/src/project/discourageExpoGoForProd.ts

+
+const suppressionEnvVarName = 'EAS_BUILD_NO_EXPO_GO_WARNING';
+
+export const discourageExpoGoForProd = (


I would not try to do anything smart here with the non-awaited Promise. Can we just await this? Does this add significant time to the build process?

If we do this asynchronously it might happen that a chain of ~~thought~~ log may be broken by this warning.

sjchmiela · 2025-06-25T20:34:54Z

packages/eas-cli/src/project/discourageExpoGoForProd.ts

+  return workflows.android === Workflow.MANAGED && workflows.ios === Workflow.MANAGED;
+}
+
+function checkIfExpoDevClientInstalled(projectDir: string): boolean {


Should we use isExpoDevClientInstalledAsync instead?

eas-cli/packages/eas-cli/src/build/utils/devClient.ts

Lines 106 to 114 in ab8115b

async function isExpoDevClientInstalledAsync(projectDir: string): Promise<boolean> {

try {

resolveFrom(projectDir, 'expo-dev-client/package.json');

return true;

} catch (err: any) {

Log.debug(err);

return false;

}

}

sjchmiela · 2025-06-25T20:36:28Z

packages/eas-cli/src/project/discourageExpoGoForProd.ts

+): void => {
+  detectExpoGoProdBuildAsync(buildProfiles, projectDir, vcsClient)
+    .then(usesExpoGo => {
+      if (usesExpoGo) {


If you do if (!usesExpoGo) code will be indented a bit less and, in my opinion, more readable.

github-actions · 2025-06-26T11:02:02Z

✅ Thank you for adding the changelog entry!

brentvatne · 2025-07-03T00:25:32Z

packages/eas-cli/src/project/discourageExpoGoForProd.ts

+    Log.warn(
+      `⚠️ It appears you're trying to build an app based on Expo Go for production. Expo Go is not a suitable environment for production apps.`
+    );
+    Log.warn(
+      learnMore('https://docs.expo.dev/develop/development-builds/expo-go-to-dev-build/', {
+        learnMoreMessage: 'Learn more about converting from Expo Go to a development build',
+        dim: false,
+      })
+    );


i'll think about how to improve the wording on this and get back to you, let's hold off on merging for now

⚠️ Detected that your app uses Expo Go for development, this is not recommended when building production apps. (fyi link here)

fyi page:

Expo Go is meant for learning and prototyping. Learn more.

Behavior of production builds may differ significantly from the Expo Go app, because it is a precompiled sandbox app and your customizations that will apply to production apps and development will likely not be testable in Expo Go.

For example, if you add a library with native code that is not in the Expo SDK, that will not be available in Expo Go. If that library does not actually compile due to an error or incompatibility, you will only discover this when you run a production build. Additionally, most fields in your app.json do not have any impact on your app when it runs in Expo Go, but they will apply when you run a production or development build. Examples of such properties are: scheme, splash (only the app icon is used in Expo Go), any plugins, edgeToEdgeEnabled, predictiveBackGestureEnabled, and so on.

Development builds provide a reliable and flexible development environment, and behave more predictably and similar to production builds. This makes it easier to catch potential issues during development.

Learn more about converting from Expo Go to a development build.

brentvatne

looks good w/ changes we discussed on call and added in comments

brentvatne · 2025-10-28T17:36:44Z

packages/eas-cli/src/project/discourageExpoGoForProd.ts

+    Log.warn(
+      `⚠️ It appears you're trying to build an app based on Expo Go for production. Expo Go is not a suitable environment for production apps.`
+    );
+    Log.warn(
+      learnMore('https://docs.expo.dev/develop/development-builds/expo-go-to-dev-build/', {
+        learnMoreMessage: 'Learn more about converting from Expo Go to a development build',
+        dim: false,
+      })
+    );


⚠️ Detected that your app uses Expo Go for development, this is not recommended when building production apps. (fyi link here)

fyi page:

Expo Go is meant for learning and prototyping. Learn more.

Behavior of production builds may differ significantly from the Expo Go app, because it is a precompiled sandbox app and your customizations that will apply to production apps and development will likely not be testable in Expo Go.

For example, if you add a library with native code that is not in the Expo SDK, that will not be available in Expo Go. If that library does not actually compile due to an error or incompatibility, you will only discover this when you run a production build. Additionally, most fields in your app.json do not have any impact on your app when it runs in Expo Go, but they will apply when you run a production or development build. Examples of such properties are: scheme, splash (only the app icon is used in Expo Go), any plugins, edgeToEdgeEnabled, predictiveBackGestureEnabled, and so on.

Development builds provide a reliable and flexible development environment, and behave more predictably and similar to production builds. This makes it easier to catch potential issues during development.

Learn more about converting from Expo Go to a development build.

brentvatne · 2025-10-28T17:37:26Z

packages/eas-cli/src/project/discourageExpoGoForProd.ts

+    );
+    Log.newLine();
+  } catch (err) {
+    Log.warn('Error detecting whether Expo Go is used:', err);


only show this is debug, ideally log this to sentry also so we can get some info on when/how this happens

vonovak marked this pull request as ready for review June 25, 2025 08:29

vonovak changed the title ~~[eas-build] discourage Expo Go for production~~ [eas-build] warn when creating a prod build from an Expo Go app Jun 25, 2025

vonovak changed the title ~~[eas-build] warn when creating a prod build from an Expo Go app~~ [eas-build] warn when creating a production build from Expo Go Jun 25, 2025

vonovak force-pushed the vonovak/_eas-build_discourage_expo_go_for_production branch from c801227 to 1419630 Compare June 25, 2025 08:33

vonovak force-pushed the vonovak/_eas-build_discourage_expo_go_for_production branch 4 times, most recently from 6bc2131 to f303ad9 Compare June 25, 2025 08:44

vonovak commented Jun 25, 2025

View reviewed changes

[eas-build] discourage Expo Go for production

9107eb9

vonovak force-pushed the vonovak/_eas-build_discourage_expo_go_for_production branch from f303ad9 to 9107eb9 Compare June 25, 2025 08:46

vonovak requested a review from sjchmiela June 25, 2025 08:47

sjchmiela reviewed Jun 25, 2025

View reviewed changes

sjchmiela requested a review from brentvatne June 25, 2025 20:36

vonovak force-pushed the vonovak/_eas-build_discourage_expo_go_for_production branch 2 times, most recently from 0bd94bb to 8c58773 Compare June 26, 2025 10:59

address review

6b3940a

vonovak force-pushed the vonovak/_eas-build_discourage_expo_go_for_production branch from 8c58773 to 6b3940a Compare June 26, 2025 11:01

brentvatne reviewed Jul 3, 2025

View reviewed changes

brentvatne approved these changes Oct 28, 2025

View reviewed changes


		const suppressionEnvVarName = 'EAS_BUILD_NO_EXPO_GO_WARNING';

		export const discourageExpoGoForProd = (

	async function isExpoDevClientInstalledAsync(projectDir: string): Promise<boolean> {
	try {
	resolveFrom(projectDir, 'expo-dev-client/package.json');
	return true;
	} catch (err: any) {
	Log.debug(err);
	return false;
	}
	}

[eas-build] warn when creating a production build from Expo Go #3073

Are you sure you want to change the base?

[eas-build] warn when creating a production build from Expo Go #3073

Uh oh!

Conversation

vonovak commented Jun 25, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Why

How

Test Plan

Uh oh!

vonovak commented Jun 25, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

github-actions bot commented Jun 25, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

github-actions bot commented Jun 25, 2025

Uh oh!

codecov bot commented Jun 25, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Codecov Report

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

sjchmiela left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

github-actions bot commented Jun 26, 2025

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

brentvatne left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

4 participants

vonovak commented Jun 25, 2025 •

edited

Loading

vonovak commented Jun 25, 2025 •

edited

Loading

github-actions bot commented Jun 25, 2025 •

edited

Loading

codecov bot commented Jun 25, 2025 •

edited

Loading