Quick Start

Get RNCopilot running on your machine in under five minutes.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

Node.js 18+ and npm
Expo CLI (included via npx expo)
iOS Simulator (macOS only) or Android Emulator

You do not need a Supabase account or any backend service to run the app. RNCopilot boots and works fully without any external services configured.

Installation

Clone the repository


git clone https://github.com/FouadMagdy01/RNCopilot.git my-app
cd my-app

Replace my-app with whatever you want to name your project directory.

Install dependencies


npm install --legacy-peer-deps

The --legacy-peer-deps flag is required due to peer dependency resolution in the React Native ecosystem. Do not omit it.

Set up environment variables (optional)


cp .env.example .env

This creates a .env file from the included example. All variables are optional — the app uses sensible defaults and gracefully degrades when services like Supabase are not configured. You can fill in credentials later when you are ready to connect external services.

Start the development server


npm start

This launches the Expo development server. From the terminal menu:

Press i to open the app in the iOS Simulator
Press a to open the app on an Android Emulator
Scan the QR code with Expo Go on a physical device

Verify It Works

Once the app launches, you should see the home screen with tab navigation at the bottom. The Settings tab demonstrates theming (light/dark mode toggle) and language switching (English/Arabic with RTL).

Path Aliases

RNCopilot uses two path aliases so you never need long relative imports:

Alias	Maps To	Example
`@/*`	`src/*`	`import { Button } from '@/common/components/Button'`
`~/*`	`app/*`	`import type { LayoutProps } from '~/types'`

These aliases are configured in both tsconfig.json (for TypeScript) and babel.config.js (for the bundler), so they work everywhere — in your editor, in tests, and at runtime.

Common Commands

Here are the commands you will use most often during development:


# Start the dev server
npm start
 
# Run on a specific platform
npm run ios
npm run android
 
# Code quality checks
npm run type-check       # TypeScript compiler check
npm run lint             # ESLint
npm run lint:fix         # Auto-fix ESLint issues
npm run format           # Prettier format all files
npm run validate         # Run all checks (type-check + lint + format)
 
# Testing
npm test                 # Run the test suite
npm run test:coverage    # Run tests with coverage report

What’s Next?

Now that the app is running, learn how the codebase is organized:

Project Structure — Understand the directory layout and file conventions
Environment Setup — Configure Supabase, API URLs, Sentry, and more