I need one attribute in the manifest for an SDK I am integrating. Their docs say "add this line to AndroidManifest.xml".
Everything I read says do not edit the file directly in a managed project, write a config plugin instead. Writing a whole plugin to add one line feels like enormous ceremony for a one-line change and I want to check I am not overcomplicating my first app.
Yes it is normal, and yes it feels absurd the first time. It is the price of not owning the native directories - you gave up direct editing and got automatic upgrades in return.
If you find yourself writing your fourth plugin, that is a genuine signal you might be happier in the bare workflow. Four is the number. One is not.
Worth saying explicitly since it is not obvious from the docs: a plugin can be a local file. plugins: ["./plugins/withThing"] in your config and a JS file in your repo. No package, no publish, no build step, no npm anything.
Prebuild once, commit the android folder, edit it directly. That is where most projects end up anyway and it saves you the abstraction.
Plenty of projects do end up there and it is a legitimate place to be. But it means you now hand-merge every native change at each SDK bump, forever, and that is a recurring cost rather than a saved afternoon. Recommending it to someone on their first app as the shortcut undersells what they are signing up for.
And if you do go bare, go deliberately - remove prebuild from your scripts, commit the folders on purpose, write it down. The bad version is drifting into it because a manifest edit happened to survive once.
Write the plugin. You will need a second one within a month - everyone does - and by then you will already know how, which turns a two hour job into a ten minute one.
@rest_day_rita · 8mo ago · 3 replies
Probably not, for one line. Work down this list:
app.jsonfield? Permissions, intent filters, a lot of common manifest keys are exposed directly and people write plugins for things that were one config key away.expo-build-propertiesdo it? It covers a surprising amount of the Gradle and manifest surface.And if you do get to step 3, a plugin for one manifest attribute is about fifteen lines with
withAndroidManifest. It is a function that takes config, mutates a parsed object, returns config. Not a mountain.The thing you must not do is edit
android/AndroidManifest.xmlby hand, because the next prebuild regenerates it and your line silently disappears. You will not notice at the time. You will notice on a build three weeks later when the SDK stops working and nothing in your diff explains it.Reply
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@stack_trace_sy · 8mo ago
The silent disappearance is the entire reason plugins exist. It is not ceremony, it is the only mechanism by which your change survives a regeneration. Once you see it that way the fifteen lines stop feeling like overhead.
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@bench_dogged · 8mo ago
Run
npx expo prebuild --cleanand read the generated manifest afterwards. Seeing your attribute actually appear in the output is a 30 second confirmation and it is weirdly satisfying the first time.Reply
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