React Native Prose Editor

@openeditor/react-native-prose-editor is a native rich text editor for React Native with a Rust document core, native iOS and Android rendering, configurable schemas, and a React-facing toolbar and theme API.

This project is currently in alpha and the API, behavior, and packaging may still change.

This repository contains three main pieces:

• the editor package itself under src, ios, android, and rust
• an Expo SDK 54 development app under example
• a runnable iOS XCTest harness for native regression coverage

Features

The editor already supports:

• HTML and ProseMirror JSON content input/output
• configurable schemas
• marks such as bold, italic, underline, strike, and links
• blockquotes
• bullet and ordered lists with indent/outdent behavior
• hard breaks and horizontal rules
• native @-mentions with themed suggestion UI in the toolbar area
• native theming for text, lists, horizontal rules, mentions, and the toolbar
• configurable toolbar items, including app-defined actions
• auto-grow height behavior for parent-managed scroll containers
• a Rust-backed undo/redo history model

Repository Layout

• src: React Native component API, toolbar, schemas, and TypeScript types
• ios: iOS native view, toolbar accessory, rendering bridge, and generated Rust bindings
• android: Android native view, rendering bridge, and Expo module wiring
• Rust Editor Core: document model, transforms, schema system, selection, history, serialization, and tests
• example: Expo 54 app for manual QA and development

This package now lives inside the OpenEditor monorepo. Documentation is being consolidated here while the old standalone fork is retired.

Installation

This package currently requires Expo Modules. Use it in an Expo development build or in a bare React Native app that has Expo Modules configured.

The minimum tested Expo version is SDK 54.

Required peer dependencies:

• expo
• react
• react-native
• @expo/vector-icons

Install the package:

npm install @openeditor/[email protected]

Expo prebuild apps should add the package config plugin so Android excludes obsolete JNA ABI copies that modern NDKs cannot strip:

export default {
  expo: {
    plugins: ['@openeditor/react-native-prose-editor'],
  },
};

For bare React Native apps or existing generated Android projects, add the same packaging exclude to android/gradle.properties when your template applies android.packagingOptions.* properties:

android.packagingOptions.excludes=**/armeabi/libjnidispatch.so,**/mips/libjnidispatch.so,**/mips64/libjnidispatch.so

If your Android project does not read those Gradle properties, add the patterns directly under the app module's android.packagingOptions.jniLibs.excludes.

For local package development in this repo:

npm install
npm --prefix example install
npm run example:prebuild

The installation details in this README are the current source of truth while package documentation is consolidated into the monorepo.

Basic Usage

import React, { useRef } from 'react';
import {
  NativeRichTextEditor,
  type NativeRichTextEditorRef,
} from '@openeditor/react-native-prose-editor';

export function EditorScreen() {
  const editorRef = useRef<NativeRichTextEditorRef>(null);

  return (
    <NativeRichTextEditor
      ref={editorRef}
      initialContent="<p>Hello world</p>"
      placeholder="Start typing..."
      onContentChange={(html) => {
        console.log(html);
      }}
    />
  );
}

Customization

The main extension points today are:

• schema: provide a custom schema definition
• theme: style text blocks, blockquotes, lists, horizontal rules, background, and toolbar chrome, including a native-looking keyboard toolbar mode
• toolbarItems: define the visible toolbar controls and order
• onToolbarAction: handle app-defined toolbar buttons
• onRequestLink: collect or edit hyperlink URLs when a toolbar link item is pressed
• addons: configure optional features like @-mentions
• heightBehavior: switch between internal scrolling and auto-grow

For setup and customization details, use this README and the package source as the current source of truth while documentation is consolidated into the monorepo.

For whole-document JSON loads, initialJSON, controlled valueJSON, and setContentJson() will normalize an empty root document like { type: 'doc', content: [] } to the active schema's empty text block so block-constrained schemas still load a valid empty document. For chat composer or draft-reset flows, prefer the ref method clearContent().

Development

Common commands:

npm run typecheck
npm run bench:rust -- --quick
npm run example:start
npm run example:ios
npm run example:android
npm run build:rust

Tests:

npm test                                             # TypeScript unit tests
cargo test --manifest-path rust/editor-core/Cargo.toml  # Rust core tests
npm run android:test                                  # Android Robolectric tests
npm run android:test:device                           # Android device integration tests
npm run ios:test                                      # iOS simulator integration tests
npm run ios:test:device                               # iOS device integration tests

Benchmarks:

npm run bench:rust -- --quick
npm run bench:rust -- --filter collaboration
npm run bench:rust -- --json > perf-results.json

Documentation

The native ownership rules are normative and documented in docs/native-editor-architecture.md.

Project Status

The project is usable and already covers the core editing flows, but the API and documentation are still evolving as the package moves toward wider use.