Setup Reference

I'll probably make this more verbose at some point in the future.

Prerequisites

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/rlajustin/rn-cf-boilerplate.git

The docs folder can be deleted if desired.

For local development, you’ll need Xcode to build and simulate the mobile app. Once Xcode is installed, you can install an iPhone simulator. You should also have Homebrew. Install Node.js with:

brew install node

Install dependencies with:

npm i

Try to build the iOS app locally with:

npm run client ios

Install any additional dependencies required for the build to succeed. This is likely where you’ll encounter the most friction during setup.

You should also create a Cloudflare account and (optionally) purchase a domain. This will give you a custom domain to host your API/website, as well as a custom email domain.

Configuration

First, create config files using the command

You will need to complete the following files with names or values specific to your app:

client/app.json
backend/.dev.vars
backend/wrangler.toml
backend/package.json

For backend files that don’t exist yet, create them by copying their corresponding EXAMPLE files. Additionally, search the codebase for instances of "<YOUR-", as you should change these as well.

Create a free Brevo account for email—Brevo offers a generous free plan (300 emails/day). If you scale up, consider self-hosting your email service with Mailcow or Mail in a Box. For now, follow an online guide to set up Brevo with your custom domain via Cloudflare. Once set up, fill in backend/.dev.vars with values from the "SMTP & API" and "Senders, Domains & Dedicated IPs" tabs. Generate a JWT secret with:

node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"

Put this output into .dev.vars. The APP_BUNDLE_ID and TEAM_ID fields are from Apple and are necessary for Device Attestation (but aren’t required immediately).

To complete the initial setup, fill out the local section in backend/wrangler.toml, setting database_name to match the local:migrate script in backend/package.json. After this, you should be able to perform the initial database migration and launch the backend service with:

npm run backend local:deploy

To complete wrangler.toml, you’ll need to create Cloudflare databases and bind them to your worker. For preview and prod KV/D1 databases, refer to these docs: KV, D1.