maestro launches expo app and shows "development build" instead of app

Question

I am using expo SDK 49 and maestro for E2E user testing. When I run maestro now, a page appears that say "Development Build" and does not show my app anymore.

Can someone please explain what is this page, why this is showing and how I can get maestro to load my app again?

I have tried running npx react-native build-android and eas build --profile development --platform android

When I run npx expo run:android the app shows correctly

Answer 1

You may manually close the Development Build UI and switch to your app using these Maestro commands:

- runFlow:
    when:
      visible:
        text: "http.*"
    commands:
      - tapOn: "http.*"
- runFlow:
    when:
      visible: "Continue"
    commands:
      - tapOn: "Continue"
- runFlow:
    when:
      visible: "Toggle performance monitor"
    commands:
      - tapOn:
          point: 50%,10%

Answer 2

Similar question with answer: how to not have expo development build page show when app starts?

Development build shows when you build with "developmentClient": true in eas.json

From the documentation: https://docs.expo.dev/develop/development-builds/introduction/

Development builds of your app are Debug builds of your project. It includes the expo-dev-client library, which allows you to develop and debug projects using Expo CLI. Building your project with Expo allows you to make most changes in JavaScript.

You can create a build in the eas.json that has "developmentClient": false