Best MCP Servers for React Native Developers

React Native development is a different beast from web development. You are not just writing JavaScript -- you are navigating cross-platform builds, Xcode and Android Studio configurations, Expo SDK upgrades, native module linking, platform-specific debugging, and the constant tension between iOS and Android behavior. Your editor is only one of five windows you have open at any given time.

The right MCP server stack changes this. Instead of jumping between your terminal, device simulator, documentation tabs, and your editor, your AI assistant gets direct access to your project files, current documentation, your GitHub repos, and your backend. The context-switching drops dramatically, and you stay in flow where it matters -- writing the code that runs on actual devices.

This guide covers the five MCP servers that cover a React Native developer's core workflow, what each one does, and how they fit together without bloating your context window.

1. Filesystem MCP -- The Foundation of Every Project

Author: Anthropic (official) | Tools: 11 | Context cost: ~2,500 tokens

Your AI assistant cannot help you if it cannot read your project files. Filesystem MCP is the base layer that makes everything else possible. It gives your assistant the ability to read, write, search, and navigate your project directory.

For React Native specifically, this server earns its place because of how many configuration files your project touches. Your assistant needs to read and edit app.json, metro.config.js, babel.config.js, Info.plist, AndroidManifest.xml, Podfile, build.gradle, and a dozen other files that live across the ios/ and android/ directories. Without Filesystem MCP, your assistant is working blind.

In practice, this means you can ask your assistant to update your iOS deployment target across both Podfile and the Xcode project settings, or add a new permission to AndroidManifest.xml while also updating the corresponding Info.plist entry. It reads the current state of each file, understands the structure, and makes the edits in one pass.

At roughly 2,500 tokens, this is the cheapest server in the stack and the one you should never run without.

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "./"]
    }
  }
}

No API keys required. Point it at your project root and it works.

2. Context7 MCP -- Current Docs, Not Stale Training Data

Author: Upstash | Tools: 2 | Context cost: ~2,000 tokens

React Native and Expo move fast. The jump from Expo SDK 50 to SDK 52 changed how EAS Build works, how the router handles layouts, and how native modules are configured. If your AI assistant is relying on training data from six months ago, the code it writes may not compile against the SDK version in your package.json.

Context7 MCP fixes this by pulling live documentation directly from library sources into the conversation. When your assistant needs to know how expo-notifications works in the latest SDK, or what changed in React Navigation 7, it queries Context7 and gets the current docs -- not a cached answer from its training data.

This is especially valuable for the React Native ecosystem because the documentation landscape is fragmented. You have React Native core docs, Expo docs, React Navigation docs, and then dozens of community libraries with their own documentation sites. Context7 indexes all of them, so your assistant can pull the right reference material regardless of which library you are working with.

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "context7": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@upstash/context7-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

No API key required. Two tools, minimal footprint, maximum value.

3. GitHub MCP -- Navigate the Dependency Maze

Author: GitHub (official) | Tools: 20 | Context cost: ~8,000 tokens

React Native projects are dependency-heavy. A typical app pulls in React Navigation, Expo modules, native UI libraries, state management, and a handful of platform-specific packages. When something breaks after an upgrade -- and it will -- you often end up searching GitHub issues to find out if it is a known problem and how others solved it.

GitHub MCP gives your assistant direct access to the GitHub API. It can search repositories, read issues and pull requests, review code, and manage your own repos. For React Native development, the most valuable capability is searching. Your assistant can search the react-native repo, the expo repo, or any community library repo for issues matching your error message, without you opening a browser.

Beyond searching, the server handles your day-to-day source control workflow. Your assistant can create pull requests with descriptions that reference the actual changes, open issues with proper labels, and review code diffs -- all within the same conversation where you are writing features.

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Requires a GitHub personal access token with repo access.

4. Supabase MCP -- Your App's Backend, Inside Your Editor

Author: Supabase (official) | Tools: 25 | Context cost: ~12,875 tokens

Most React Native apps are not standalone -- they talk to a backend. If that backend is Supabase (or Postgres in general), the Supabase MCP server eliminates the constant switching between your editor and the Supabase dashboard.

Your assistant can run SQL queries, manage tables, apply migrations, deploy edge functions, and even create development branches for safe experimentation. When you are building a new feature that requires a schema change, your assistant can draft the migration, apply it to a branch database, and help you write the corresponding React Native data layer -- all in one conversation.

If you are not using Supabase, the Postgres MCP server provides similar database access at a lower token cost (~4,200 tokens). The core value is the same: direct database access from your editor saves you from the dashboard tab-switching that fragments your focus.

This is the heaviest server in the stack at ~12,875 tokens. If you are on a tight token budget and your app's backend work is minimal, you can defer adding this one until you need it.

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "supabase": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@supabase/mcp-server-supabase@latest"],
      "env": {
        "SUPABASE_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

5. Sequential Thinking MCP -- Structured Debugging for Native Crashes

Author: Anthropic (official) | Tools: 1 | Context cost: ~1,800 tokens

React Native debugging is notoriously tricky. A crash on iOS might not reproduce on Android. A red screen might point to a JavaScript error, a native module misconfiguration, or a bridge communication failure. The stack trace might reference Objective-C frames that mean nothing to a JavaScript developer.

Sequential Thinking MCP gives your assistant a structured reasoning tool that breaks complex problems into explicit steps. Instead of jumping to a solution, it works through the problem methodically -- identifying the error type, narrowing the platform, checking configuration files, and reasoning about potential causes before suggesting a fix.

This sounds simple, but the difference is significant for the kinds of multi-layered debugging that React Native forces on you. When your assistant encounters a EXC_BAD_ACCESS crash in an Expo module, sequential thinking helps it reason through whether it is a linking issue, a missing native dependency, a threading problem, or an SDK version mismatch -- rather than guessing.

At only ~1,800 tokens, this server adds almost no overhead to your context window while meaningfully improving the quality of debugging and architecture conversations.

Token Budget: What This Stack Actually Costs

One of the most common mistakes with MCP servers is adding too many. Some developers run 30+ servers consuming 60,000 or more tokens on tool definitions alone. That is context window space that could be holding your actual code.

This React Native stack is designed to be lean:

The lean stack gives you file access, current docs, and structured debugging at just 3.2% of Claude's 200K context window. The full stack adds GitHub and backend access for under 14%. Compare that to developers running 167 tools consuming 60K+ tokens -- this stack gives you everything you need for React Native development at a fraction of the cost.

Ready-to-Copy Configuration

Here is the full stack configured for Claude Code. Copy this into your .mcp.json or your client's MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "./"]
    },
    "context7": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@upstash/context7-mcp@latest"]
    },
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": { "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<your-token>" }
    },
    "supabase": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@supabase/mcp-server-supabase@latest"],
      "env": { "SUPABASE_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<your-token>" }
    },
    "sequential-thinking": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"]
    }
  }
}

What About an Expo-Specific MCP Server?

As of February 2026, there is no official Expo MCP server. Given how central Expo is to the React Native ecosystem, this is a gap that will likely be filled eventually. But the absence is less limiting than you might think.

Filesystem MCP handles reading and editing Expo configuration files (app.json, app.config.js, eas.json). Context7 pulls the latest Expo SDK documentation into context. The Expo CLI itself runs in your terminal and does not need an MCP bridge -- your assistant handles the code and configuration, and you run the CLI commands.

If an official Expo MCP server launches, it would likely add capabilities like triggering EAS builds, managing Expo project settings, or reading device logs directly. That would be a welcome addition to this stack but is not a blocker today.

Workflow Examples

To make this concrete, here are two scenarios where these servers work together.

Scenario: "Fix this iOS-only crash"

A user reports that your app crashes on iOS when opening the camera, but Android works fine. You paste the crash report into your editor.

Sequential Thinking breaks the problem down: it identifies this as a permissions issue specific to iOS, notes that NSCameraUsageDescription might be missing from Info.plist, and flags that the expo-camera module may need a specific config plugin. Filesystem MCP reads your Info.plist and app.json to verify the current state. Context7 pulls the current expo-camera installation docs to confirm the required configuration. Your assistant edits the files, and you rebuild.

What would have been 15 minutes of Googling, cross-referencing docs, and manually editing XML takes under two minutes.

Scenario: "Add push notifications"

You want to add push notifications with Expo. Context7 pulls the latest expo-notifications documentation, including the setup steps for both iOS and Android. Filesystem MCP edits your app.json to add the notification plugin configuration and creates the notification handler file. GitHub searches the Expo repo for example implementations of notification categories and action buttons, pulling in patterns from real projects.

Your assistant writes the notification registration code, the handler, and the server-side function to send notifications -- all using current APIs verified against the live documentation.

Getting Started

You do not need all five servers on day one. Start based on your current pain points:

• Constantly editing native config files by hand? Start with Filesystem MCP.
• Getting outdated React Native API suggestions? Add Context7 MCP.
• Spending too much time debugging platform-specific crashes? Sequential Thinking MCP pays for itself immediately.
• Managing a backend alongside your app? Add Supabase MCP when you need it.

Each server is a few lines of JSON. Add them incrementally, and remove any that are not pulling their weight. The goal is a stack that fits your workflow, not the largest possible collection of tools.

For more curated stacks covering other development workflows, visit stackmcp.dev. And remember: when it comes to MCP servers, less is usually more. A focused stack that covers your actual needs will always outperform a bloated one that wastes your context window.