React-native: ERESOLVE could not resolve when installing through NPM

[DJHunn39]

Hi!

I'm running into issues when installing @aries-framework modules in my react-native project.

I'm on Node 18.18.2, react-native 0.76.6, and the aries-related dependencies in my package.json look like this:

"dependencies": {
    "@aries-framework/anoncreds": "0.4.2",
    "@aries-framework/anoncreds-rs": "0.4.2",
    "@aries-framework/askar": "0.4.2",
    "@aries-framework/core": "0.4.2",
    "@aries-framework/indy-vdr": "0.4.2",
    "@aries-framework/node": "0.4.2",
    "@aries-framework/react-native": "0.4.2",
    ...
    "@hyperledger/anoncreds-nodejs": "0.1.0",
    "@hyperledger/anoncreds-react-native": "0.1.0",
    "@hyperledger/aries-askar-nodejs": "0.1.1",
    "@hyperledger/aries-askar-react-native": "0.1.1",
    "@hyperledger/indy-vdr-nodejs": "0.1.0",
    "@hyperledger/indy-vdr-react-native": "0.1.0",
    ...
    "react-native": "0.72.6",
}

When running npm i, I get the following error:

npm ERR! code ERESOLVE
npm ERR! ERESOLVE could not resolve
npm ERR!
npm ERR! While resolving: @aries-framework/react-native@0.4.2
npm ERR! Found: react-native@0.72.6
npm ERR! node_modules/react-native
npm ERR!   react-native@"0.72.6" from the root project
npm ERR!   peer react-native@">= 0.66.0" from @hyperledger/anoncreds-react-native@0.1.0
npm ERR!   node_modules/@hyperledger/anoncreds-react-native
npm ERR!     @hyperledger/anoncreds-react-native@"0.1.0" from the root project
npm ERR!   28 more (@hyperledger/aries-askar-react-native, ...)
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Could not resolve dependency:
npm ERR! peer react-native@"^0.71.4" from @aries-framework/react-native@0.4.2
npm ERR! node_modules/@aries-framework/react-native
npm ERR!   @aries-framework/react-native@"0.4.2" from the root project
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Conflicting peer dependency: react-native@0.71.14
npm ERR! node_modules/react-native
npm ERR!   peer react-native@"^0.71.4" from @aries-framework/react-native@0.4.2
npm ERR!   node_modules/@aries-framework/react-native
npm ERR!     @aries-framework/react-native@"0.4.2" from the root project
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Fix the upstream dependency conflict, or retry
npm ERR! this command with --force or --legacy-peer-deps
npm ERR! to accept an incorrect (and potentially broken) dependency resolution.

I'm not sure why this is happening - if I'm reading the error correctly, a version of react-native later than v0.71.4 is required, and that's what's in place - is this something you've encountered before/have any recommendations to get around it? I'd rather not run with the --force nor --legacy-peer-deps flags as they will lead to unexpected behaviour.

[berendsliedrecht]

@aries-framework/react-native incorrectly locks the version of React Native. This should be fixed upstream, but running with force or ignore is fine as react native 0.72 also works with AFJ.