Expo Mobile App

Tambo uses the same @tambo-ai/react SDK for Expo and React Native as it does for web apps. Hooks like useTambo() and useTamboThreadInput() work the same way — you just build native UI instead of using the pre-built web components.

Create an Expo app

npx tambo create-app my-mobile-app --template=expo

Or add Tambo to an existing Expo project:

npx tambo full-send

The CLI detects Expo and skips web component installation automatically.

Setup

Wrap your app with TamboProvider the same way you would in a web app:

import { TamboProvider } from "@tambo-ai/react";

export default function App() {
  return (
    <TamboProvider
      apiKey={process.env.EXPO_PUBLIC_TAMBO_API_KEY!}
      userKey="user-1"
      components={components}
      tools={tools}
    >
      {/* Your React Native content */}
    </TamboProvider>
  );
}

What works in Expo

The SDK is framework-agnostic. Everything that doesn't depend on the DOM works out of the box:

• All hooks — useTambo(), useTamboThreadInput(), useTamboComponentState(), etc.
• Component registration — Register React Native components the same way
• Tools — Define and use tools identically
• Streaming — Progressive prop updates work the same
• Thread management — Message history, thread switching, all of it
• MCP — Connect MCP servers the same way

The only thing that doesn't carry over is the pre-built UI components from the CLI registry (tambo add), since those use DOM elements and Tailwind CSS. Build your chat UI with React Native components instead.

Demo apps