📄 expo/tutorial/eas/using-github

File: using-github.md | Updated: 11/15/2025

Source: https://docs.expo.dev/tutorial/eas/using-github

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Trigger builds from a GitHub repository

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Learn about the process of triggering builds from a GitHub repository.

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Expo GitHub App automatically triggers builds from our GitHub projects with EAS. We can trigger builds for any build profile based on our development team's preferences. It also allows triggering builds for git push committed directly to a repository or a pull request.

In this chapter, we'll configure this functionality. We already have a GitHub repository for our example app to demonstrate this.

Watch: How to trigger builds from a GitHub repository

Watch: How to trigger builds from a GitHub repository


1

Configure Expo GitHub app


To use this functionality, we need to connect our GitHub account:

  • In the EAS dashboard, go to expo.dev/settings , and under Connections > GitHub, click Connect. This opens the Connect GitHub accounts page.
  • Click the Get started button which opens a popup to authorize the Expo GitHub app. Click Install and Authorize.
  • Once the app is installed on our GitHub account, we need to link it to our Expo account. In the next popup, click Link installation.
  • Once the account is linked, it will show under GitHub.

Linked GitHub account shows in EAS dashboard

2

Connect the GitHub repository


To enable triggering builds from a GitHub repository, we need to connect it to our project in the EAS dashboard:

  • In EAS dashboard, go to Projects > Select your project > Project settings > GitHub.
  • Under Connect a GitHub repository, we'll see a list of our GitHub repos. We need to connect the right one. In the example, we're searching for our repo sticker-smash.
  • Click Connect for the project repository.

List of GitHub repositories to connect to the project in EAS dashboard

3

Use default repository settings


The Expo GitHub app needs to know where to find the source code of our project. By default, it selects the root directory using /. In our example project, the source code is also available in the root repository. We can leave this to default in the EAS dashboard.

4

Trigger a build using a GitHub PR label


The Expo GitHub app provides us multiple options to trigger a build, such as:

  • Manually from the Builds page for a specific platform
  • Automatically when new code is pushed to the repository
  • Automatically using GitHub PR labels

To automatically trigger a build using a GitHub PR label, we're going to utilize the third option from the list above:

  • We need to specify the build image that we will be using. Open eas.json, and under the development profile, add android.image and ios.image properties and set their value to latest .

    eas.json

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    { "build": { "development": { %%placeholder-start%%... %%placeholder-end%% "android": { "image": "latest" }, "ios": { "image": "latest" } } } %%placeholder-start%%... %%placeholder-end%% }

  • Next, let's create a new branch called dev, and make a change in our app's JavaScript code. Then, commit the change, push the branch, and create a PR from that branch.

  • In the PR link, under Labels, create a label called eas-build-all:development.

Creating a label in a GitHub PR

  • Click Create pull request button to create the PR. The Expo GitHub app will start the process of creating a development build.

  • In the EAS dashboard, on the Builds page, we can verify that the builds for both Android and iOS are triggered.

Builds triggered in the EAS dashboard for Android and iOS platforms

  • If we check the details of an individual build, we can see under Created by that the build is created by the GitHub app.

Individual build details in the EAS dashboard

Summary


Chapter 11: Trigger builds from a GitHub repository

We successfully linked our GitHub account with Expo, connected our repository to our EAS project, and learned about automated development build creation using GitHub PR labels.

Mark this chapter as read

Learn about the next steps to use EAS.

Next: Next steps in your journey with EAS