A closer look at how Node-API works in React Native, covering addon loading, bundling, the host package, and new build tools like cmake-rn and ferric-cli.

Callstack Blog

A technical deep dive into how Node-API support is being brought to React Native by Callstack. Covers the architecture including the host package (react-native-node-api), how addons are bundled via auto-linking through CocoaPods/Gradle, and how they are loaded at runtime using requireNodeAddon. Explains how Node-API functions are split between engine-specific (Hermes) and runtime-specific implementations via a weak-node-api dynamic library. Also introduces build tools: cmake-rn for building addons on Android/Apple, gyp-to-cmake for converting GYP-based packages, and ferric-cli for generating type-safe Rust-based Node-API bindings.

How Node-API Works in React Native: A Deep Dive

Providing the Node-API Functions to Addons