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Running on Mobile

The mobile dev loop is sublime doctor once, then npm run dev:mobile to build and launch on a device or emulator. This page is the mobile-specific flow; for the full three-target picture and toolchain table, see Running your app.

Step 1 — Check the toolchain with sublime doctor​

Mobile needs an Android toolchain that web and desktop don't. Before your first build, run:

sublime doctor

doctor prints a ✓/✗ table for Node, JDK 17, the Android SDK, NDK, and CMake. If something is missing, sublime setup installs it:

  • Windows: sublime setup installs a portable Temurin JDK 17 into ~/.sublime/ without touching your system Java.
  • macOS / Linux: install Temurin 17 and set JAVA_HOME; setup walks you through the rest.

You only need to do this once per machine. When anything mobile-related looks off, re-run sublime doctor first.

Step 2 — Run the dev build​

npm run dev:mobile

dev:mobile runs sublime build --debug, which produces a debug Android build and runs it. A debug build loads JavaScript from Metro, so your edits hot-reload on the device — the normal React Native development experience.

This uses your src/screens/mobile/*.native.tsx screens behind the React Navigation tree compiled from storybook.native.ts.

Editing navigation? sublime build (and dev:mobile) recompile it before each build, so a normal rebuild picks up storybook changes. While iterating, you can also keep npx sublime build:nav --watch running. A running app uses the compiled navigation.native.tsx, not your storybook directly.

Devices and emulators​

sublime build/run target a connected Android device or a running emulator over adb:

  • Physical device: enable USB debugging and plug it in.
  • Emulator: start an Android Virtual Device from Android Studio first.

To install and launch an already-built APK on a specific device:

sublime run --device <id>

run installs the build and launches it; --device picks a target when more than one is attached.

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