Roadmap

The goal is not to duplicate React Native’s JavaScript surface all at once; the goal is to harden the renderer seam, then expand adapter and component parity through shared layers.

Current milestones

Area	Status	Purpose
React adapter	On the live switcher	Reference canary for the engine and Fabric pipe.
Vue adapter	On the live switcher	First non-React proof of the framework-agnostic seam.
Angular adapter	On the live switcher	Second non-React proof: Renderer2 seam, DOM-less bootstrap, full component parity.
Svelte adapter	On the live switcher	Third non-React proof: a DOM shim over stock compiled Svelte output, full component parity.
Solid adapter	On the live switcher	Fourth non-React proof: solid-js/universal’s createRenderer, full component parity.
Engine	Rewritten in C++, tuning ongoing	Retained tree, clone-on-write commits, tag-keyed platform rules, and event normalization now live in core/engine/cpp, reached from JS through one buffered crossing per commit instead of one per mutation.
Components	In progress	Shared state/view layers so adapters inherit parity.
Android host shim	Active	Keeps Android at canary parity with iOS.
Navigation package	Shipped	Native stack/tab/drawer navigator over react-native-screens, shared by every adapter.
@symbiote-native/cli scaffolder	Beta	new scaffolds a full app; add extends an existing SymbioteNative app with optional layers — wiring symbiote into a plain RN app isn’t automated yet.

Engine rewrite

The retained tree used to live in JavaScript; it now lives in C++ (core/engine/cpp), with the JS side reduced to building a command buffer and crossing into it once per commit instead of once per mutation. Measured headless so far, that trade isn’t free in one direction: create- and append-shaped operations got more expensive, while operations on an already-mounted tree (swap, remove, select) got substantially cheaper across every non-React adapter. A fresh on-device benchmark run for this architecture hasn’t happened yet — see the README’s benchmark section for the actual numbers and what’s still missing.

Next adapter work

Angular validated the second framework-agnostic renderer seam and a more complex AOT build pipeline (ngtsc partial compilation, then the compiler-cli linker — two phases), and is now on the live framework switcher alongside React and Vue. Its migration from callback @Input() props to idiomatic @Output() EventEmitters for component events is complete, with one permanent exception: the scroll family (onScroll, onScrollBeginDrag, onScrollEndDrag, onMomentumScrollBegin, onMomentumScrollEnd) stays a callback input on ScrollView and the list components, because it must also accept an Animated.event(...) marker for native-driven scroll, which @Output() can’t express. Wrapper packages have followed: the Slider package now ships an Angular build alongside React and Vue.

Svelte is the third non-React adapter, done the same long-term way: a thin layer over the shared engine — here a DOM shim over stock compiled Svelte output, so components stay ordinary Svelte markup with no bespoke compiler output. It reaches the same full component parity as React, Vue, and Angular, verified on-device on iOS and Android, and the Slider wrapper package ships a Svelte build too. It’s on the landing page’s live framework switcher.

Solid is the fourth non-React adapter, built the same long-term way: a thin layer over the shared engine, here a Solid custom renderer over solid-js/universal’s own createRenderer, the framework’s official agnostic seam for non-DOM targets. It reaches the same component parity as React, Vue, Angular, and Svelte, including createPortal, createTunnel, Animated, and AppRegistry, and every companion package now ships a ./solid build too. It’s also on the live switcher now, with its own demo clip, verified on device like the other four adapters. It doesn’t yet share the Detox canary-journeys e2e spec React, Vue, and Svelte carry.

React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, and Solid keep expanding parity in the meantime: all five now have a portal primitive for same-surface content relocation (React’s createPortal, Vue’s Teleport, Angular’s *portal directive, Svelte’s and Solid’s own Portal) plus a createTunnel primitive for cross-surface delivery. Mutation-mode Fabric supports this where stock RN’s persistent-mode renderer can’t. Vue also gained v-model on controlled components and a working v-show directive; Angular’s [(value)] two-way binding covers the same controlled-component case idiomatically. All five adapters now share one AppRegistry entry point over the same @symbiote-native/engine core.

Package parity with Expo

The navigation package closed the biggest gap on the “can a real app ship without React Navigation” list, and a run of small native-module wrapper packages has followed it — Clipboard, Haptics, Sensors, Battery, Device and a dozen more, each wrapping one expo-modules-core module. Those don’t use the autolinking-proxy recipe @symbiote-native/slider and @symbiote-native/splash-screen do: they ship a passive manifest, and a single app-level @symbiote-native/expo-modules-link postinstall registers whichever ones are installed (see How to: wire up an Expo native module). npx @symbiote-native/cli new/add picks up each one as its own flag (--battery, --sensors, …) and wires the autolinking for you. Reanimated, a full worklet-driven animation layer, is the largest remaining piece and is saved for last. The end goal is package-surface parity with Expo’s SDK: whatever a real app can reach for in Expo, a SymbioteNative app can reach for too, off the same untouched native core.

Styling / CSS compiler

@symbiote-native/css-parser compiles plain CSS, CSS Modules, and SCSS/Sass, Less, and Stylus preprocessor sources at build time into native style objects, resolved at runtime through a class registry shared by React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, and Solid, including box-shadow, transform, filter, transform-origin, and background-image (gradients). It also ships type safety for .module.css imports: a css-dts CLI that generates a narrowed, typo-safe .d.ts next to each CSS Modules file, and a typescript-plugin for live in-editor autocomplete — see the styling guide for setup. Svelte’s own <style> block (scoped by default) compiles through the same pipeline. Tailwind CSS remains the open seam in this family.

Component parity rule

A component is done only when it reaches full feature parity across adapters. The project should not ship a minimal Vue ScrollView if React’s ScrollView already supports sticky headers, native scroll attach, imperative handles, and platform-specific behavior. Shared logic moves into the shared layer; adapters supply lifecycle and framework bridges.

Non-goals

• Forking React Native native sources.
• Hiding react-native as a transitive dependency of apps.
• Making third-party React Native JavaScript components framework-agnostic.
• Replacing Yoga or the native Fabric host.

Architecture docs

Public architecture notes should be written as standalone reader-facing pages. Internal repository notes can inform those pages, but should not be linked or referenced directly from the public docs.