Run a React Native app without launching Xcode?

Question

Can an iOS app (built entirely with React Native) be built/run from the command line? PhoneGap has a nice ios-sim utility for doing just that, but I haven't had any luck with it.

Answer 1

If you build the project once using Xcode, then you can close it, run npm start in your project root (to start the packager), fire up the Simulator (maybe using ios-sim). Since you built it once in Xcode, the app will be installed in the simulator so you can just run it and the whole CMD+R refresh process will work.

Answer 2

Fire up the server with:

$ npm start

Build/run the app in the ios simulator:

$ react-native run-ios