Expo

Expo apps run under the default native engine with no Expo-specific package. Expo's own JavaScript — expo itself, expo-router, and the React Navigation stack underneath it — runs for real, and the auto-detected expo preset replaces the native side of the common Expo modules the way jest-expo does.

Path aliases

Expo resolves the paths in tsconfig.json by default, so the SDK 57 template imports its own components as @/components/…. vitest-native does the same in an Expo project: on Vite 8 it turns on Vite's resolve.tsconfigPaths. Setting resolve.tsconfigPaths yourself takes precedence, and experiments.tsconfigPaths: false in app.json turns it off, as it does for Metro. Vite 6 and 7 cannot resolve tsconfig paths; the plugin says so once, and upgrading to Vite 8 or adding the vite-tsconfig-paths plugin resolves them.

Coming from jest-expo

vitest-native migrate reads the Jest configuration and translates the jest-expo preset:

Jest	vitest-native
preset: 'jest-expo' or 'jest-expo/ios'	reactNative()
preset: 'jest-expo/android'	reactNative({ platform: 'android' })
preset: 'jest-expo/universal'	one Vitest project per native platform (reported for you to set up)
preset: 'jest-expo/web', 'jest-expo/node'	not React Native renders; keep these suites outside vitest-native
jest-expo's setup files	deleted; the plugin installs its own

jest-expo mocks Expo's native modules but not React Navigation, so a jest-expo suite already renders its screens inside real navigators. When a @react-navigation/* package is installed — which is what activates vitest-native's navigation preset — migrate turns that preset off (presets: { navigation: false }) to keep that behaviour. A project with a root __mocks__/@react-navigation mock keeps the preset, which stands in for that mock.

npx vitest-native migrate          # report only
npx vitest-native migrate --write  # also save the suggested vitest.config

The suggested configuration includes the jest-compat layer, so jest.mock, jest.fn and jest.useFakeTimers in existing suites keep working while you migrate. See Migrating from Jest for the rest of the report.

Testing expo-router screens

expo-router's own testing library works as its documentation shows:

import { renderRouter, screen, testRouter } from 'expo-router/testing-library'
import { expect, test } from 'vitest'

test('navigates between file-based routes', () => {
  renderRouter('./app', { initialUrl: '/' })
  expect(screen).toHavePathname('/')

  testRouter.push('/details/42')
  expect(screen.getByText('details for 42')).toBeTruthy()
})

The library is written for Jest — it calls jest.useFakeTimers and jest.mock itself — so it needs the jest-compat layer, which a migrated configuration already includes:

import { defineConfig } from 'vitest/config'
import { reactNative } from 'vitest-native'
import { jestCompatSetup, jestMockTransform } from 'vitest-native/jest-compat'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [reactNative(), jestMockTransform()],
  test: {
    environment: 'node',
    globals: true,
    setupFiles: [jestCompatSetup],
  },
})

From SDK 57, expo-router bundles its own React Navigation, which runs for real. Before SDK 57 it used the installed @react-navigation/* packages; there, add presets: { navigation: false } so the router's navigators are real rather than the navigation preset's mocks.

What the expo preset covers

The expo preset is applied when expo-constants is installed. It covers expo-constants, expo-status-bar, expo-font, expo-asset, expo-splash-screen and expo-linking.

Expo modules without a built-in preset (for example expo-image or expo-haptics) need a vi.mock in a setup file, like any other native library without a preset.

SDK and React Native versions

Expo SDKs trail React Native. Pin react-native to the version your SDK supports rather than the newest release. SDK 54 (React Native 0.81) and later fall inside the validated React Native range, 0.81–0.87.

CI installs a packed Expo SDK 57 app (React Native 0.86, RNTL 13) from the release tarball on every change. It runs an Expo module smoke suite, expo-router's testing library against file-based app/ routes, and the same router suite under the configuration migrate --write generates from a jest-expo setup.