Sentry React Native SDK

Opinionated wizard that scans your React Native or Expo project and guides you through complete Sentry setup — error monitoring, tracing, profiling, session replay, logging, and more.

Invoke This Skill When

• User asks to “add Sentry to React Native” or “set up Sentry” in an RN or Expo app
• User wants error monitoring, tracing, profiling, session replay, or logging in React Native
• User mentions @sentry/react-native, mobile error tracking, or Sentry for Expo
• User wants to monitor native crashes, ANRs, or app hangs on iOS/Android

Note: SDK versions and APIs below reflect current Sentry docs at time of writing (@sentry/react-native ≥6.0.0, minimum recommended ≥8.0.0). Always verify against docs.sentry.io/platforms/react-native/ before implementing.

Phase 1: Detect

Run these commands to understand the project before making any recommendations:

# Detect project type and existing Sentry
cat package.json | grep -E '"(react-native|expo|@expo|@sentry/react-native|sentry-expo)"'

# Distinguish Expo managed vs bare vs vanilla RN
ls app.json app.config.js app.config.ts 2>/dev/null
cat app.json 2>/dev/null | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print('Expo managed' if 'expo' in d else 'Bare/Vanilla')" 2>/dev/null

# Check Expo SDK version (important: Expo SDK 50+ required for @sentry/react-native)
cat package.json | grep '"expo"'

# Detect navigation library
grep -E '"(@react-navigation/native|react-native-navigation)"' package.json

# Detect state management (Redux → breadcrumb integration available)
grep -E '"(redux|@reduxjs/toolkit|zustand|mobx)"' package.json

# Check for existing Sentry initialization
grep -r "Sentry.init" src/ app/ App.tsx App.js _layout.tsx 2>/dev/null | head -5

# Detect Hermes (affects source map handling)
cat android/app/build.gradle 2>/dev/null | grep -i hermes
cat ios/Podfile 2>/dev/null | grep -i hermes

# Detect Expo Router
ls app/_layout.tsx app/_layout.js 2>/dev/null

# Detect backend for cross-link
ls backend/ server/ api/ 2>/dev/null
find . -maxdepth 3 \( -name "go.mod" -o -name "requirements.txt" -o -name "Gemfile" -o -name "package.json" \) 2>/dev/null | grep -v node_modules | head -10

What to determine:

Phase 2: Recommend

Present a concrete recommendation based on what you found. Don’t ask open-ended questions — lead with a proposal:

Recommended (core coverage — always set up these):

• ✅ Error Monitoring — captures JS exceptions, native crashes (iOS + Android), ANRs, and app hangs
• ✅ Tracing — mobile performance is critical; auto-instruments navigation, app start, network requests
• ✅ Session Replay — mobile replay captures screenshots and touch events for debugging user issues

Optional (enhanced observability):

• ⚡ Profiling — CPU profiling on iOS (JS profiling cross-platform); low overhead in production
• ⚡ Logging — structured logs via Sentry.logger.*; links to traces for full context
• ⚡ User Feedback — collect user-submitted bug reports directly from your app

Recommendation logic:

Propose: “For your [Expo managed / bare RN] app, I recommend setting up Error Monitoring + Tracing + Session Replay. Want me to also add Profiling and Logging?”

Phase 3: Guide

Determine Your Setup Path

Path A: Wizard CLI (Recommended for all project types)

Run the wizard — it walks you through login, org/project selection, and auth token setup interactively. It then handles installation, native config, source map upload, and initial Sentry.init():

npx @sentry/wizard@latest -i reactNative

What the wizard creates/modifies:

After the wizard runs, skip to Verification.

Path B: Manual — Expo Managed (SDK 50+)

Step 1 — Install

npx expo install @sentry/react-native

Step 2 — metro.config.js

const { getSentryExpoConfig } = require("@sentry/react-native/metro");
const config = getSentryExpoConfig(__dirname);
module.exports = config;

If metro.config.js doesn’t exist yet:

npx expo customize metro.config.js
# Then replace contents with the above

Step 3 — app.json — Add Expo config plugin

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      [
        "@sentry/react-native/expo",
        {
          "url": "https://sentry.io/",
          "project": "YOUR_PROJECT_SLUG",
          "organization": "YOUR_ORG_SLUG"
        }
      ]
    ]
  }
}

Note: Set SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN as an environment variable for native builds — never commit it to version control.

Step 4 — Initialize Sentry

For Expo Router (app/_layout.tsx):

import { Stack, useNavigationContainerRef } from "expo-router";
import { isRunningInExpoGo } from "expo";
import * as Sentry from "@sentry/react-native";
import React from "react";

const navigationIntegration = Sentry.reactNavigationIntegration({
  enableTimeToInitialDisplay: !isRunningInExpoGo(), // disabled in Expo Go
});

Sentry.init({
  dsn: process.env.EXPO_PUBLIC_SENTRY_DSN ?? "YOUR_SENTRY_DSN",
  sendDefaultPii: true,

  // Tracing
  tracesSampleRate: 1.0, // lower to 0.1–0.2 in production

  // Profiling
  profilesSampleRate: 1.0,

  // Session Replay
  replaysOnErrorSampleRate: 1.0,
  replaysSessionSampleRate: 0.1,

  // Logging (SDK ≥7.0.0)
  enableLogs: true,

  // Navigation
  integrations: [
    navigationIntegration,
    Sentry.mobileReplayIntegration(),
  ],

  enableNativeFramesTracking: !isRunningInExpoGo(), // slow/frozen frames

  environment: __DEV__ ? "development" : "production",
});

function RootLayout() {
  const ref = useNavigationContainerRef();

  React.useEffect(() => {
    if (ref) {
      navigationIntegration.registerNavigationContainer(ref);
    }
  }, [ref]);

  return <Stack />;
}

export default Sentry.wrap(RootLayout);

For standard Expo (App.tsx):

import { NavigationContainer, createNavigationContainerRef } from "@react-navigation/native";
import { isRunningInExpoGo } from "expo";
import * as Sentry from "@sentry/react-native";

const navigationIntegration = Sentry.reactNavigationIntegration({
  enableTimeToInitialDisplay: !isRunningInExpoGo(),
});

Sentry.init({
  dsn: process.env.EXPO_PUBLIC_SENTRY_DSN ?? "YOUR_SENTRY_DSN",
  sendDefaultPii: true,
  tracesSampleRate: 1.0,
  profilesSampleRate: 1.0,
  replaysOnErrorSampleRate: 1.0,
  replaysSessionSampleRate: 0.1,
  enableLogs: true,
  integrations: [
    navigationIntegration,
    Sentry.mobileReplayIntegration(),
  ],
  enableNativeFramesTracking: !isRunningInExpoGo(),
  environment: __DEV__ ? "development" : "production",
});

const navigationRef = createNavigationContainerRef();

function App() {
  return (
    <NavigationContainer
      ref={navigationRef}
      onReady={() => {
        navigationIntegration.registerNavigationContainer(navigationRef);
      }}
    >
      {/* your navigation here */}
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
}

export default Sentry.wrap(App);

Path C: Manual — Bare React Native (0.69+)

Step 1 — Install

npm install @sentry/react-native --save
cd ios && pod install

Step 2 — metro.config.js

const { getDefaultConfig } = require("@react-native/metro-config");
const { withSentryConfig } = require("@sentry/react-native/metro");

const config = getDefaultConfig(__dirname);
module.exports = withSentryConfig(config);

Step 3 — iOS: Modify Xcode build phase

Open ios/[AppName].xcodeproj in Xcode. Find the “Bundle React Native code and images” build phase and replace the script content with:

# RN 0.81.1+
set -e
WITH_ENVIRONMENT="../node_modules/react-native/scripts/xcode/with-environment.sh"
SENTRY_XCODE="../node_modules/@sentry/react-native/scripts/sentry-xcode.sh"
/bin/sh -c "$WITH_ENVIRONMENT $SENTRY_XCODE"

Step 4 — iOS: Add “Upload Debug Symbols to Sentry” build phase

Add a new Run Script build phase in Xcode (after the bundle phase):

/bin/sh ../node_modules/@sentry/react-native/scripts/sentry-xcode-debug-files.sh

Step 5 — iOS: ios/sentry.properties

defaults.url=https://sentry.io/
defaults.org=YOUR_ORG_SLUG
defaults.project=YOUR_PROJECT_SLUG
auth.token=YOUR_ORG_AUTH_TOKEN

Step 6 — Android: android/app/build.gradle

Add before the android {} block:

apply from: "../../node_modules/@sentry/react-native/sentry.gradle"

Step 7 — Android: android/sentry.properties

defaults.url=https://sentry.io/
defaults.org=YOUR_ORG_SLUG
defaults.project=YOUR_PROJECT_SLUG
auth.token=YOUR_ORG_AUTH_TOKEN

Step 8 — Initialize Sentry (App.tsx or entry point)

import { NavigationContainer, createNavigationContainerRef } from "@react-navigation/native";
import * as Sentry from "@sentry/react-native";

const navigationIntegration = Sentry.reactNavigationIntegration({
  enableTimeToInitialDisplay: true,
});

Sentry.init({
  dsn: "YOUR_SENTRY_DSN",
  sendDefaultPii: true,
  tracesSampleRate: 1.0,
  profilesSampleRate: 1.0,
  replaysOnErrorSampleRate: 1.0,
  replaysSessionSampleRate: 0.1,
  enableLogs: true,
  integrations: [
    navigationIntegration,
    Sentry.mobileReplayIntegration(),
  ],
  enableNativeFramesTracking: true,
  environment: __DEV__ ? "development" : "production",
});

const navigationRef = createNavigationContainerRef();

function App() {
  return (
    <NavigationContainer
      ref={navigationRef}
      onReady={() => {
        navigationIntegration.registerNavigationContainer(navigationRef);
      }}
    >
      {/* your navigation here */}
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
}

export default Sentry.wrap(App);

Quick Reference: Full-Featured Sentry.init()

This is the recommended starting configuration with all features enabled:

import * as Sentry from "@sentry/react-native";

Sentry.init({
  dsn: "YOUR_SENTRY_DSN",
  sendDefaultPii: true,

  // Tracing — lower to 0.1–0.2 in high-traffic production
  tracesSampleRate: 1.0,

  // Profiling — runs on a subset of traced transactions
  profilesSampleRate: 1.0,

  // Session Replay — always capture on error, sample 10% of all sessions
  replaysOnErrorSampleRate: 1.0,
  replaysSessionSampleRate: 0.1,

  // Logging — enable Sentry.logger.* API
  enableLogs: true,

  // Integrations — mobile replay is opt-in
  integrations: [
    Sentry.mobileReplayIntegration({
      maskAllText: true,   // masks text by default for privacy
      maskAllImages: true,
    }),
  ],

  // Native frames tracking (disable in Expo Go)
  enableNativeFramesTracking: true,

  // Environment
  environment: __DEV__ ? "development" : "production",

  // Release — set from CI or build system
  // release: "my-app@1.0.0+1",
  // dist: "1",
});

// REQUIRED: Wrap root component to capture React render errors
export default Sentry.wrap(App);

Navigation Setup — React Navigation (v5+)

import { reactNavigationIntegration } from "@sentry/react-native";
import { NavigationContainer, createNavigationContainerRef } from "@react-navigation/native";

const navigationIntegration = reactNavigationIntegration({
  enableTimeToInitialDisplay: true,   // track TTID per screen
  routeChangeTimeoutMs: 1_000,        // max wait for route change to settle
  ignoreEmptyBackNavigationTransactions: true,
});

// Add to Sentry.init integrations array
Sentry.init({
  integrations: [navigationIntegration],
  // ...
});

// In your component:
const navigationRef = createNavigationContainerRef();

<NavigationContainer
  ref={navigationRef}
  onReady={() => {
    navigationIntegration.registerNavigationContainer(navigationRef);
  }}
>

Navigation Setup — Wix React Native Navigation

import * as Sentry from "@sentry/react-native";
import { Navigation } from "react-native-navigation";

Sentry.init({
  integrations: [Sentry.reactNativeNavigationIntegration({ navigation: Navigation })],
  // ...
});

Wrap Your Root Component

Always wrap your root component — this enables React error boundaries and ensures crashes at the component tree level are captured:

export default Sentry.wrap(App);

For Each Agreed Feature

Walk through features one at a time. Load the reference file for each, follow its steps, then verify before moving on:

For each feature: Read ${SKILL_ROOT}/references/<feature>.md, follow steps exactly, verify it works.

Configuration Reference

Core Sentry.init() Options

Tracing Options

Native / Mobile Options

Session & Release Health Options

Replay Options

Logging Options (SDK ≥7.0.0)

Hook Options

Environment Variables

Source Maps & Debug Symbols

Source maps and debug symbols are what transform minified stack traces into readable ones. When set up correctly, Sentry shows you the exact line of your source code that threw.

How Uploads Work

Expo: Automatic Upload

The @sentry/react-native/expo config plugin automatically sets up upload hooks for native builds. Source maps are uploaded during eas build and expo run:ios/android (release).

SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN=sntrys_... npx expo run:ios --configuration Release

Manual Upload (bare RN)

If you need to manually upload source maps:

npx sentry-cli sourcemaps upload \
  --org YOUR_ORG \
  --project YOUR_PROJECT \
  --release "my-app@1.0.0+1" \
  ./dist

Default Integrations (Auto-Enabled)

These integrations are enabled automatically — no config needed:

Opt-In Integrations

Expo Config Plugin Reference

Configure the plugin in app.json or app.config.js:

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      [
        "@sentry/react-native/expo",
        {
          "url": "https://sentry.io/",
          "project": "my-project",
          "organization": "my-org",
          "note": "Set SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN env var for native builds"
        }
      ]
    ]
  }
}

Or in app.config.js (allows env var interpolation):

export default {
  expo: {
    plugins: [
      [
        "@sentry/react-native/expo",
        {
          url: "https://sentry.io/",
          project: process.env.SENTRY_PROJECT,
          organization: process.env.SENTRY_ORG,
        },
      ],
    ],
  },
};

Production Settings

Lower sample rates and harden config before shipping to production:

Sentry.init({
  dsn: process.env.EXPO_PUBLIC_SENTRY_DSN,
  environment: __DEV__ ? "development" : "production",

  // Trace 10–20% of transactions in high-traffic production
  tracesSampleRate: __DEV__ ? 1.0 : 0.1,

  // Profile 100% of traced transactions (profiling is always a subset of tracing)
  profilesSampleRate: 1.0,

  // Replay all error sessions, sample 5% of normal sessions
  replaysOnErrorSampleRate: 1.0,
  replaysSessionSampleRate: __DEV__ ? 1.0 : 0.05,

  // Set release and dist for accurate source map lookup
  release: "my-app@" + Application.nativeApplicationVersion,
  dist: String(Application.nativeBuildVersion),

  // Disable debug logging in production
  debug: __DEV__,
});

Verification

After setup, test that Sentry is receiving events:

// Quick test — throws and Sentry.wrap(App) catches it
<Button
  title="Test Sentry Error"
  onPress={() => {
    throw new Error("My first Sentry error!");
  }}
/>

// Or capture manually
<Button
  title="Test Sentry Message"
  onPress={() => {
    Sentry.captureMessage("Sentry test message", "info");
  }}
/>

Check the Sentry dashboard:

• Issues → your test error should appear within seconds
• Traces → look for a “main” transaction with child spans
• Replays → session recording visible after app interaction (native build only — not Expo Go)
• Logs → structured log entries if enableLogs: true

⚠️ Expo Go limitation: Native crashes, session replay, slow/frozen frames, TTID, and TTFD only work in native builds (eas build or expo run). Expo Go runs in a JS-only mode. Set enableNativeFramesTracking: !isRunningInExpoGo() to avoid warnings.

If nothing appears:

1. Set debug: true — SDK logs to Metro console
2. Verify DSN is correct and the Sentry project exists
3. Ensure Sentry.wrap(App) is applied to the root component
4. For native crashes, build a release build (crashes in debug mode may not forward)

Phase 4: Cross-Link

After completing React Native setup, check for a backend or web frontend missing Sentry coverage:

# Adjacent backend directories
ls ../backend ../server ../api 2>/dev/null
cat ../go.mod 2>/dev/null | head -3
cat ../requirements.txt ../pyproject.toml 2>/dev/null | head -3
cat ../Gemfile 2>/dev/null | head -3
ls ../backend/package.json ../server/package.json 2>/dev/null

# Web frontend in same or sibling repo
ls ../web ../frontend ../dashboard 2>/dev/null
cat ../web/package.json ../frontend/package.json 2>/dev/null | grep -E '"react"|"svelte"|"next"'

# Check for OpenTelemetry (for distributed tracing interop)
grep -r "opentelemetry" ../backend/go.mod ../server/requirements.txt 2>/dev/null

If a backend or web frontend exists without Sentry, suggest the matching skill:

Distributed tracing setup — if the backend skill is added, configure tracePropagationTargets in React Native to propagate trace context to your API:

Sentry.init({
  tracePropagationTargets: [
    "localhost",
    /^https:\/\/api\.yourapp\.com/,
  ],
  // ...
});

This links mobile transactions to backend traces in the Sentry waterfall view.

Troubleshooting