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Configuring the Build Cache for React Native in non-Bitrise CI environments

The Bitrise Build Cache CLI can be downloaded and run on any third-party CI provider (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Jenkins, etc.).

  1. Create a Personal Access Token.

  2. Get your Workspace slug.

  3. Set two variables in your CI provider's secret/environment settings:

    • BITRISE_BUILD_CACHE_AUTH_TOKEN: your Personal Access Token.

    • BITRISE_BUILD_CACHE_WORKSPACE_ID: your Workspace slug.

  4. Add the following script to your CI pipeline before any Step that triggers a native build.

    It must run in the same environment (same shell, same container) as the build commands it's meant to accelerate.

    #!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euxo pipefail

# Download the Bitrise Build Cache CLI.
curl --retry 5 -sSfL \
  'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitrise-io/bitrise-build-cache-cli/main/install/installer.sh' \
  | sh -s -- -b /tmp/bin -d

# Activate Build Cache for React Native (Gradle + Xcode + ccache for C++).
/tmp/bin/bitrise-build-cache activate react-native

    By default this enables all three backends. To disable a backend, pass the matching flag:

    /tmp/bin/bitrise-build-cache activate react-native --gradle=true --xcode=true --cpp=false

    Note

    If you have previously used the Bitrise Build Cache CLI for Gradle or Xcode only, make sure you are on CLI v1.0.0 or later to get React Native support.

  5. After activation, the bitrise-build-cache binary is on PATH. Prefix any command that triggers a native build with bitrise-build-cache react-native run.

    Note

    For more information about wrapping, see Wrapping native build commands.

Example 1. Example configuration: GitHub Actions 
jobs:
  build-rn:
    runs-on: macos-latest
    env:
      BITRISE_BUILD_CACHE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.BITRISE_BUILD_CACHE_AUTH_TOKEN }}
      BITRISE_BUILD_CACHE_WORKSPACE_ID: ${{ secrets.BITRISE_BUILD_CACHE_WORKSPACE_ID }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Activate Bitrise Build Cache for React Native
        run: |
          curl --retry 5 -sSfL \
            'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitrise-io/bitrise-build-cache-cli/main/install/installer.sh' \
            | sh -s -- -b /tmp/bin -d
          /tmp/bin/bitrise-build-cache activate react-native
      - name: Install JS dependencies
        run: yarn install
      - name: Build iOS
        run: /tmp/bin/bitrise-build-cache react-native run npx react-native run-ios --configuration=Release
      - name: Build Android
        run: /tmp/bin/bitrise-build-cache react-native run npx react-native run-android --mode=release

Validating the setup

  1. Run a build with the new configuration. The activation step should complete successfully.

  2. Open the Build details page on Bitrise and check the Build Cache tab. You should see the wrapped commands listed with their cache stats.

  3. The first build will report 0% cache hit rate: the cache is empty at this point. This is expected.

  4. Run 1–3 additional builds to warm the cache. Subsequent builds should report a hit rate above 0%.

  5. You can monitor cache performance per build and across builds on the Build Cache list page.

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