Set up your XION Mobile Development Environment

To build a mobile app on XION with React Native and Expo, your development environment must support either Android or iOS. This guide walks you through the steps to initialize a React Native mobile app with Expo and configure it to work with XION using the @burnt-labs/abstraxion-react-native package and have it running on either Android or iOS.

The following is also a very useful guide that will help you set up your local development environment for Expo.

Android Setup

Install Java Development Kit

The Java Development Kit (JDK) is required for Android development. The following instructions will help you to install JDK on your operating system.

macOS

Use Homebrew to install the Azul Zulu OpenJDK, which supports both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

In your terminal, run:

brew install --cask zulu@17

Once the installation is complete, set the JAVA_HOME environment variable by adding the following to your ~/.bash_profile (or ~/.zshrc if you're using Zsh):

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/zulu-17.jdk/Contents/Home

Linux

You can get OpenJDK either through your system’s package manager or by downloading it directly from AdoptOpenJDK.

Windows

Requirements

Before proceeding, ensure you have a package manager like Chocolatey set up on your system.

Install Required Tools

To install the Java SE Development Kit (JDK), run the following command in your terminal:

choco install -y microsoft-openjdk17

Install Android Studio

• Download: Android Studio

• During setup, install:

  • Android SDK

  • Android SDK Platform-Tools

  • Android Virtual Device (AVD) Manager

• Go to Tools > SDK Manager menu item and within that window go to Settings > Languages & Frameworks > Android SDK. From the SDK Platforms tab, select the latest Android version (API level).

• Click on the SDK Tools tab and make sure you have at least one version of the Android SDK Build-Tools and Android Emulator installed.

Set Up Android Emulator

• Open Android Studio > Device Manager

• Create a new virtual device (recommended: Pixel 9 with API 35+)

Add Environment Variables (macOS/Linux)

Add to your shell config (e.g., ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc):

export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/emulator
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools

Then run:

source ~/.zshrc # or your respective shell file

iOS Setup (macOS only)

Install Xcode

• Download from the Mac App Store

• Install Command Line Tools via your terminal by executing:

xcode-select --install

Install an iOS Simulator

To install an iOS Simulator, open Xcode > Settings... > Components, and under Platform Support > iOS ..., click Get.

For more detailed guidance on configuring your development environment, refer to the official Expo setup guide: https://docs.expo.dev/get-started/set-up-your-environment/.