React Native Clean Project

Cleans your React Native project by purging caches and modules, and reinstalling them again.

✨ Now with Monorepo & pnpm Support! Automatically detects and handles monorepo structures with proper workspace management.

Installing

# npm
npm install --save-dev react-native-clean-project

# yarn
yarn add -D react-native-clean-project

# pnpm (monorepo recommended)
pnpm add -D react-native-clean-project

Running

React-Native CLI plugin

This module is automatically detected as a plugin by the standard react-native command, adding new sub-commands:

• react-native clean-project-auto - fully automated project state clean: like a freshly-cloned, never-started repo
• react-native clean-project - interactive project state clean: choose types of react-native state to clean

Direct execution

For complete control (including using command-line arguments to non-interactively fine-tune what state is cleaned):

npx react-native-clean-project

Or add it as a script to your package.json

"scripts": {
  "clean": "react-native-clean-project"
}

Content

This is a combination of the commands suggested in the React Native documentation plus others.

State Type	Command	In clean-project-auto?	Optional?	Default?	Option Flag
React-native cache	rm -rf $TMPDIR/react-*	Yes	No	true
Metro bundler cache	rm -rf $TMPDIR/metro-*	Yes	No	true
Watchman cache	watchman watch-del-all	Yes	No	true
Node modules (monorepo)	rm -rf **/node_modules (workspace-aware)	Yes	Yes	true	--keep-node-modules
Package manager cache	pnpm store prune / yarn cache clean	Yes	Yes	true	--keep-node-modules
Package manager install	pnpm install / yarn install	Yes	Yes	true	--keep-node-modules
iOS build folder	rm -rf {path}/ios/build	Yes	Yes	false	--remove-iOS-build
iOS pods folder	rm -rf {path}/ios/Pods	Yes	Yes	false	--remove-iOS-pods
system iOS pods cache	pod cache clean --all	Yes	Yes	true	--keep-system-iOS-pods-cache
user iOS pods cache	rm -rf ~/.cocoapods	Yes	Yes	true	--keep-user-iOS-pods-cache
Android build folder	rm -rf {path}/android/build	Yes	Yes	false	--remove-android-build
Android clean project	(cd {path}/android && ./gradlew clean)	Yes	Yes	false	--clean-android-project
Brew package	brew update && brew upgrade	No	Yes	true	--keep-brew
Pod packages	pod update	No	Yes	true	--keep-pods

Note: {path} automatically resolves to apps/react-native/ in monorepos or . in standard projects.

Example: npx react-native-clean-project --remove-iOS-build

Monorepo Support

This tool automatically detects monorepo structures and adjusts cleaning paths accordingly:

Supported Structures

• pnpm workspaces: Detects pnpm-lock.yaml and workspace configurations
• Standard monorepos: Supports apps/react-native/ structure
• Multi-package: Cleans all workspace node_modules safely

Detection Logic

The tool automatically:

1. Detects package manager (pnpm, yarn, npm)
2. Finds React Native app location (apps/react-native/ or current directory)
3. Adjusts all paths for iOS (ios/), Android (android/), and build folders
4. Uses appropriate package manager commands for cache cleaning

Example Monorepo Structure

my-monorepo/
├── package.json              # Root workspace
├── pnpm-workspace.yaml       # pnpm config
├── apps/
│   ├── react-native/         # RN app automatically detected
│   │   ├── ios/             # Cleaned as apps/react-native/ios/
│   │   └── android/         # Cleaned as apps/react-native/android/
│   └── web/
└── packages/
    ├── shared-ui/
    └── utils/

Other Tips

You can also reset the Metro bundler cache when starting with react-native start --reset-cache

Support

This library does not support windows. PR's are welcome.

Contributing

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for details on our code of conduct, and the process for submitting pull requests to us.

Authors

• Pedro Madruga - twitter

See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details