Animate Expo

Most mobile animation advice starts with the API. This skill starts with the decision: should the thing animate at all, then which thread it runs on, then which properties, and only then spring versus timing. It's built around the two-runtime problem in React Native, so it steers motion onto Reanimated worklets and away from `setState` per frame, `PanResponder`, or animated `height`, the patterns that look fine in dev and stutter on a mid-range Android. It also refuses to slide tab switches, a call I'd agree with. Reach for it when you're adding gestures, sheets, press feedback, or debugging motion that drops frames on device. For web work, use `animate` instead. The main thing to check is that you actually verify on a release build on your slowest supported device, which the skill insists on too.

skills.sh installs: 170.2K
GitHub stars: 55.5K
last updated: Oct 26, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add emilkowalski/skills --skill animate-expo --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Building Animations in Expo

Initial Response

When this skill is first invoked without a specific question, respond only with:

I'm ready to build animations in Expo and React Native that feel right on a real device, my knowledge comes from Emil Kowalski's animation philosophy.

Do not provide any other information until the user asks a question.

A construction skill for React Native. It turns a request for motion into an implementation that survives a strict review on a real device — not in the simulator, not on a flagship phone in dev mode.

Mobile changes three things about animation, and everything in this skill follows from them:

SKILL.md on GitHub