Example Project Fails to Start – “Error: Unable to resolve module react-native”

[kukat]

Description

After creating a new project using ‎create-react-native-library, I followed the standard steps to set up and run the example project. However, running ‎npm start results in a error:

  BUNDLE  ./index.js
 ERROR  Error: Unable to resolve module react-native from /Users/foo/code/create-react-native-library-example/example/index.js: react-native could not be found within the project or in these directories:
  node_modules
  ../node_modules
  /Users/foo/code/create-react-native-library-example/node_modules/react-native
> 1 | import { AppRegistry } from 'react-native';
    |                              ^
  2 | import App from './src/App';
  3 | import { name as appName } from './app.json';
  4 |
    at ModuleResolver.resolveDependency (/Users/foo/code/create-react-native-library-example/node_modules/metro/src/node-haste/DependencyGraph/ModuleResolution.js:150:15)
    at DependencyGraph.resolveDependency (/Users/foo/code/create-react-native-library-example/node_modules/metro/src/node-haste/DependencyGraph.js:239:43)
    at /Users/foo/code/create-react-native-library-example/node_modules/metro/src/lib/transformHelpers.js:161:21
    at resolveDependencies (/Users/foo/code/create-react-native-library-example/node_modules/metro/src/DeltaBundler/buildSubgraph.js:43:25)
    at visit (/Users/foo/code/create-react-native-library-example/node_modules/metro/src/DeltaBundler/buildSubgraph.js:81:30)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async Promise.all (index 0)
    at async buildSubgraph (/Users/foo/code/create-react-native-library-example/node_modules/metro/src/DeltaBundler/buildSubgraph.js:105:3)
    at async Graph._buildDelta (/Users/foo/code/create-react-native-library-example/node_modules/metro/src/DeltaBundler/Graph.js:158:22)
    at async Graph.initialTraverseDependencies (/Users/foo/code/create-react-native-library-example/node_modules/metro/src/DeltaBundler/Graph.js:141:19)

I’m pretty sure I have run ‎npm install successfully, and I can see that ‎react-native is present in the ‎node_modules folder. Please let me know if there are additional setup steps required or if this is a bug in the generated project structure.

Steps to reproduce

1. npx create-react-native-library my-lib`
2. cd my-lib
3. npm install
4. cd example
5. npm install
6. npm start
7. run ios/android app or simply hit http://localhost:8081/index.bundle

Packages

• create-react-native-library
• react-native-builder-bob

Selected options

Turbo Modules

Link to repro

https://github.com/kukat/create-react-native-library-example

Environment

System:
OS: macOS 15.6.1
CPU: (10) arm64 Apple M1 Pro
Memory: 194.22 MB / 16.00 GB
Shell:
version: "5.9"
path: /bin/zsh
Binaries:
Node:
version: 20.19.4
path: ~/.local/share/mise/installs/node/20.19.4/bin/node
Yarn: Not Found
npm:
version: 10.8.2
path: ~/.local/share/mise/installs/node/20.19.4/bin/npm
Watchman:
version: 2025.09.08.00
path: /opt/homebrew/bin/watchman
Managers:
CocoaPods:
version: 1.16.2
path: /Users/foo/.local/share/mise/installs/ruby/3.4.5/bin/pod
SDKs:
iOS SDK:
Platforms:
- DriverKit 24.5
- iOS 18.5
- macOS 15.5
- tvOS 18.5
- visionOS 2.5
- watchOS 11.5
Android SDK: Not Found
IDEs:
Android Studio: 2025.1 AI-251.26094.121.2513.14007798
Xcode:
version: 16.4/16F6
path: /usr/bin/xcodebuild
Languages:
Java:
version: 21.0.8
path: /Users/foo/.local/share/mise/installs/java/temurin-21.0.8+9.0.LTS/bin/javac
Ruby:
version: 3.4.5
path: /Users/foo/.local/share/mise/installs/ruby/3.4.5/bin/ruby
npmPackages:
"@react-native-community/cli":
installed: 20.0.0
wanted: 20.0.0
react: Not Found
react-native: Not Found
react-native-macos: Not Found
npmGlobalPackages:
"react-native": Not Found
Android:
hermesEnabled: true
newArchEnabled: true
iOS:
hermesEnabled: true
newArchEnabled: false

[mensonones]

try reproduce in ubuntu, using yarn and node 22.20.0 and not getting error

[Hemanth-M-K]

facing same issue on mac and windows

[satya164]

As outlined in the generated project's development workflow, it's configured to use Yarn workspaces, not npm. You'll need to use yarn, or modify the project to work with npm.