React Native UI Lib build fails on Expo SDK 56 – HighlighterViewPackage and KeyboardInputPackage not found in PackageList.java

[milan-greycube]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to use React Native UI Lib in a fresh Expo SDK 56 project. I was previously using the same library with Expo SDK 54, and everything worked without any issues.

However, after creating a new project with Expo SDK 56 and installing react-native-ui-lib, the Android build fails with the following errors:

PackageList.java:80: error: cannot find symbol
new HighlighterViewPackage(),
^
PackageList.java:81: error: cannot find symbol
new KeyboardInputPackage(getApplication()),
^
Environment
Expo SDK: 56
React Native: (version bundled with Expo SDK 56)
Platform: Android
Library: react-native-ui-lib
What I Tried
Installed react-native-ui-lib in a fresh Expo SDK 56 project.
Cleared node modules and reinstalled dependencies.
Regenerated native folders (android / ios).
Ran a clean Android build.

The build still fails with the same PackageList.java errors.

Question

Has anyone successfully used react-native-ui-lib with Expo SDK 56?

Are HighlighterViewPackage and KeyboardInputPackage currently incompatible with the React Native version used by Expo 56, or is there any additional setup/migration step required?

Any guidance or working configuration would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[lMysticl]

This is not an extra Expo 56 setup step for HighlighterViewPackage or KeyboardInputPackage. The error matches the duplicate Android autolinking problem already tracked in #3950.

react-native-ui-lib uses uilib-native for those native packages, but the published JS package also contains Android autolinking metadata. Recent React Native/Expo autolinking can therefore treat both packages as native owners and generate a PackageList.java from the wrong/duplicate entry. PR #4014 removes that copied metadata at publish time, but it is still open, so there is no released fix from that PR yet.

Until it is merged and released, exclude only react-native-ui-lib from Android autolinking and leave uilib-native enabled. With Expo SDK 56 you can put this in the app's package.json:

{
  "expo": {
    "autolinking": {
      "android": {
        "exclude": ["react-native-ui-lib"]
      }
    }
  }
}

The equivalent React Native CLI override is:

// react-native.config.js
module.exports = {
  dependencies: {
    'react-native-ui-lib': {
      platforms: { android: null },
    },
  },
}

Use one mechanism, not both. Also check that the native peer is actually present:

npm ls react-native-ui-lib uilib-native
npx expo-modules-autolinking verify --verbose

After the override, the verification output should show uilib-native as the Android native package and should no longer resolve a second Android entry from react-native-ui-lib. Then regenerate the native project if you use Expo prebuild/CNG, or at least clean the Android generated autolinking output before rebuilding. Do not manually add these packages to MainApplication; that would create another registration path.

The same exclusion workaround was tested by several users in #3805. If it still fails, please paste the two npm ls versions and the expo-modules-autolinking verify --verbose entries; that will distinguish this known duplicate from a separate SDK 56 compatibility issue.