react-native-best-practices

React Native Best Practices

Comprehensive best practices for React Native and Expo applications. Contains rules across multiple categories covering performance, animations, UI patterns, and platform-specific optimizations.

When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:

• Building React Native or Expo apps
• Optimizing list and scroll performance
• Implementing animations with Reanimated
• Working with images and media
• Configuring native modules or fonts
• Structuring monorepo projects with native dependencies

Rule Categories by Priority

Priority	Category	Impact	Prefix
1	List Performance	CRITICAL	list-performance-
2	Animation	HIGH	animation-
3	Navigation	HIGH	navigation-
4	UI Patterns	HIGH	ui-
5	State Management	MEDIUM	react-state-
6	Rendering	MEDIUM	rendering-
7	Monorepo	MEDIUM	monorepo-
8	Configuration	LOW	fonts-, imports-

Quick Reference

1. List Performance (CRITICAL)

• list-performance-virtualize - Use FlashList for large lists
• list-performance-item-memo - Memoize list item components
• list-performance-callbacks - Stabilize callback references
• list-performance-inline-objects - Avoid inline style objects
• list-performance-function-references - Extract functions outside render
• list-performance-images - Optimize images in lists
• list-performance-item-expensive - Move expensive work outside items
• list-performance-item-types - Use item types for heterogeneous lists

2. Animation (HIGH)

• animation-gpu-properties - Animate only transform and opacity
• animation-derived-value - Use useDerivedValue for computed animations
• animation-gesture-detector-press - Use Gesture.Tap instead of Pressable

3. Navigation (HIGH)

• navigation-native-navigators - Use native stack and native tabs over JS navigators

4. UI Patterns (HIGH)

• ui-expo-image - Use expo-image for all images
• ui-image-gallery - Use Galeria for image lightboxes
• ui-pressable - Use Pressable over TouchableOpacity
• ui-safe-area-scroll - Handle safe areas in ScrollViews
• ui-scrollview-content-inset - Use contentInset for headers
• ui-menus - Use native context menus
• ui-native-modals - Use native modals when possible
• ui-measure-views - Use onLayout, not measure()
• ui-styling - Use StyleSheet.create or Nativewind

5. State Management (MEDIUM)

• react-state-minimize - Minimize state subscriptions
• react-state-dispatcher - Use dispatcher pattern for callbacks
• react-state-fallback - Show fallback on first render
• react-compiler-destructure-functions - Destructure for React Compiler
• react-compiler-reanimated-shared-values - Handle shared values with compiler

6. Rendering (MEDIUM)

• rendering-text-in-text-component - Wrap text in Text components
• rendering-no-falsy-and - Avoid falsy && for conditional rendering

7. Monorepo (MEDIUM)

• monorepo-native-deps-in-app - Keep native dependencies in app package
• monorepo-single-dependency-versions - Use single versions across packages

8. Configuration (LOW)

• fonts-config-plugin - Use config plugins for custom fonts
• imports-design-system-folder - Organize design system imports
• js-hoist-intl - Hoist Intl object creation

How to Use

Read individual rule files for detailed explanations and code examples:

rules/list-performance-virtualize.md
rules/animation-gpu-properties.md

Each rule file contains:

• Brief explanation of why it matters
• Incorrect code example with explanation
• Correct code example with explanation
• Additional context and references

Full Compiled Document

For the complete guide with all rules expanded: references/full-guide.md