react-native-source-editor

A native source editor component for React Native, built as a Fabric component wrapping STTextView on iOS and macOS. Designed to drop into both Expo CNG apps (via the included config plugin) and bare React Native / react-native-macos hosts.

Status

iOS works end-to-end on the New Architecture today. macOS is scaffolded but not yet runnable — the underlying STTextView/Swift sources need an Obj-C++ port before they can ship on react-native-macos. Tracked in #27; roadmap below. Pre-1.0, expect the JS API to evolve until the macOS path lands.

Project tracking lives on the project board.

Platform support

Platform	Status	Min version
iOS	Shipping (Fabric / New Architecture)	16.0
macOS	Scaffolded, pending #27	14.0 (target)
iPadOS	Roadmap	—
Android	Stub only	—
Windows	Roadmap	—
Linux	Roadmap	—
Web	Out of scope for v1	—

iOS / macOS minimums are STTextView's floors, not ours.

Quick start

# Library is not yet on npm — install via local path while v1 is in flight
npm install /path/to/react-native-source-editor
gem install cocoapods-spm  # required: STTextView is SPM-only

import SourceEditor from '@workspace-sh/react-native-source-editor';

export default function Editor() {
  return (
    <SourceEditor
      defaultValue="// hello"
      editable
      language="typescript"
      style={{ flex: 1 }}
    />
  );
}

For Expo CNG apps, register the plugin in app.json so cocoapods-spm + the STTextView SPM package get injected into the Podfile during expo prebuild:

{
  "plugins": [
    "@workspace-sh/react-native-source-editor",
    ["expo-build-properties", {
      "ios": { "deploymentTarget": "16.0", "useFrameworks": "static" }
    }]
  ]
}

Bare-RN hosts: see docs/installation.md for the manual Podfile snippet.

• Full setup → docs/installation.md
• Full API (props + ref handle) → docs/usage.md
• Runnable example apps → docs/examples.md

Roadmap

• v0.x (now) — bare RN Fabric library, iOS shipping. JS API: text, selection, font, theme, language (markdown / json / js / ts / html), lineNumbers gutter toggle, contentInsets, imperative focus/blur.
• v0.x next — macOS via Obj-C++ port (#27). Unblocks the example/macos-app/ target and re-adds :osx to the podspec.
• v1.0 — expanded font customisation, npm publish under @workspace-sh/react-native-source-editor.
• Post-1.0 — iPadOS polish, Android (TextKit alternative), Windows, Linux, Web.

Contributing

Contributions and bug reports are welcome.

Repo layout

• src/ — TypeScript surface. SourceEditor.tsx is the high-level wrapper; SourceEditorView.tsx exposes the lower-level codegen Fabric component.
• ios/ — Native sources. SourceEditor.{h,mm} is the Fabric Obj-C++ wrapper; SourceEditorImpl.swift and Highlighter.swift are the Swift impl (slated for Obj-C++ port in #27). ReactNativeSourceEditor.h is the framework's umbrella anchor.
• example/ios-app/ — Expo SDK 55 host. Uses Expo CNG, owned by expo prebuild — never run pod install here manually.
• example/macos-app/ — react-native-macos 0.81 host. Standard bare-RN toolchain (pod install, react-native run-macos). Currently not runnable; see #27.
• app.plugin.js — Expo config plugin. Injects cocoapods-spm + the STTextView SPM package into the consumer's Podfile during expo prebuild.
• ReactNativeSourceEditor.podspec — root podspec; bare RN libraries put it here so autolinking finds it.

Development setup

npm install
npm run typecheck

Running the iOS example

npm run ios:plugin           # one-time: gem install cocoapods-spm
npm run ios:install          # one-time: install example/ios-app deps
npm run ios:run              # build + launch on iOS simulator
npm run ios:dev              # concurrently: clean Metro + run:ios

Other scripts: ios:start, ios:clear, ios:run:device, ios:run:device:release, ios:clean (wipes generated ios/), ios:prebuild. Pod install is owned by expo run:ios — there is intentionally no ios:pods script.

Running the macOS example

Tracked in #27; the scripts (macos:install, macos:pods, macos:run, macos:dev) exist but the build will fail until the Swift sources are ported to Obj-C++.

Branching

• Branch off develop; PRs target develop. main mirrors the latest release.
• One PR per project-board issue. Reference the issue in the PR description.
• Squash-merge with the PR title as the commit subject.
• CI runs typecheck + iOS build via .github/workflows/ci.yml.

License

MIT © Leslie Owusu-Appiah.

Built on top of STTextView by Marcin Krzyzanowski (BSD-2-Clause). Without it, this library would not exist.