React Native quickstart

By the end of this page you will have a React Native app with an end-to-end encrypted document store, powered by native Rust-based Automerge and native crypto — no WebAssembly, no JavaScript crypto overhead.

Prerequisites

• Expo SDK 52+ with a development build (not Expo Go)
• Node.js 20+
• iOS 13+ or Android 6.0+ (API level 23+)

1) Install dependencies

In your existing Expo / React Native project, install MindooDB and the native Automerge backend:

npm install mindoodb react-native-automerge-generated

2) Run the setup helper

This copies required patches (for react-native-quick-crypto and React Native), installs additional dependencies (native crypto, polyfills, patch-package), and prints Metro configuration guidance.

npx mindoodb setup-react-native

Follow the instructions printed by the helper. For the full list of what gets installed, see the React Native guide.

3) Initialize polyfills & native Automerge

Replace your index.js entry point with the following. Polyfills must load first; then the native Automerge backend is registered before any app code runs.

// index.js — FIRST lines, before any other imports
import "./mindoodb-polyfills";

import { UseApi } from "@automerge/automerge/slim";
import { nativeApi } from "react-native-automerge-generated";
UseApi(nativeApi);

import { registerRootComponent } from "expo";
import App from "./App";
registerRootComponent(App);

The mindoodb-polyfills.js file is created by the setup helper in step 2. It provides TextEncoder, TextDecoder, URL, and crypto polyfills.

4) Add MindooDB code

Create a file (e.g. mindoo-demo.js) with the following. The key difference from Node.js: you pass a QuickCryptoAdapter that uses native OpenSSL via react-native-quick-crypto for all cryptographic operations.

import {
  BaseMindooTenantFactory,
  InMemoryContentAddressedStoreFactory,
  QuickCryptoAdapter,
} from "mindoodb";
import * as quickCrypto from "react-native-quick-crypto";

export async function runMindooDemo() {
  // React Native uses native crypto via react-native-quick-crypto
  const cryptoAdapter = new QuickCryptoAdapter(quickCrypto);
  const storeFactory = new InMemoryContentAddressedStoreFactory();
  const factory = new BaseMindooTenantFactory(storeFactory, cryptoAdapter);

  // One call creates admin + user keys, KeyBag, and directory
  const { tenant, adminUser, appUser, keyBag } =
    await factory.createTenant({
      tenantId: "my-first-tenant",
      adminName: "cn=admin/o=demo",
      adminPassword: "admin-password",
      userName: "cn=alice/o=demo",
      userPassword: "user-password",
    });

  // Open a database and create a todo document
  const db = await tenant.openDB("todos");
  const todo = await db.createDocument();
  await db.changeDoc(todo, async (d) => {
    const data = d.getData();
    data.title = "Pay invoices";
    data.done = false;
  });

  // Read it back
  const ids = await db.getAllDocumentIds();
  const loaded = await db.getDocument(ids[0]);
  console.log("Loaded todo:", loaded.getData());
  return loaded.getData();
}

5) Build & run

Native modules require a compiled build. Run one of the following:

# iOS
npx expo prebuild --clean
npx expo run:ios

# Android
npx expo prebuild --clean
npx expo run:android

Call runMindooDemo() from your App component (e.g. in a useEffect). Check the Metro console for:

Loaded todo: { title: 'Pay invoices', done: false }