CLI

For bare React Native, where there's no config plugin.

npx react-native-pose-detection <command>

It runs on Node 22.22.1 or newer, the same floor the package declares in engines. It has no dependencies of its own, so npx fetches nothing beyond the package you already installed.

With no command, help, --help or -h, it prints its usage and exits 0, and --help anywhere on the line wins over the command. Anything a command does not take, an unknown flag, another command's flag or a stray argument, is an error rather than something quietly ignored. Errors exit 1 with the reason on stderr.

fetch-model <variant>

npx react-native-pose-detection fetch-model full

Downloads, verifies, and installs into both native projects: the config plugin's model steps, including removing any previously installed model. It does not declare the camera permission, which a bare app does itself, see installation.

Flag	Notes
--force	re-download even on a cache hit
--cache-dir <path>	override the cache location
--ios-only / --android-only	install into one platform

› model "full" not in cache
› downloading pose_landmarker_full.task (9.0 MB)…
› sha256 ✓
› copied → android/app/src/main/assets/pose_landmarker_full.task
› copied → ios/MyApp/Resources/pose_landmarker_full.task
› registered → ios/MyApp.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj

Before any of that it checks the installed Expo SDK against React Native, the check doctor opens with. A mismatch, or no expo at all, is a warning that names the fix, and the install goes ahead:

› warning: expo 57 is built for React Native 0.86, found 0.85.3: npm i expo@56

A platform with no native project is skipped with a warning. The command exits 0 when at least one platform received the model and 1 when none did, such as --ios-only in a project with no ios/*.xcodeproj.

On Android the file goes into the module React Native builds: android/app, or the one react-native.config.js names with project.android.sourceDir and project.android.appName, found the way React Native's own CLI finds it. doctor checks the same place.

On iOS the file is also added to your app target, so it ends up in the bundle without a trip through Xcode. Switching variants unregisters the old one in the same pass.

That step needs expo to be resolvable, which it is in any project using this package, since Expo Modules are how the native code is linked. If it somehow isn't, the file is still copied and you get a one-line instruction instead.

doctor

npx react-native-pose-detection doctor

Checks the things that actually break:

› ✓ Expo SDK for React Native   expo 57 with react-native 0.86.2
› ✓ model installed             android/app/src/main/assets/pose_landmarker_full.task
› ✓ SHA-256 matches manifest    pose_landmarker_full.task
› ✓ model installed             ios/MyApp/Resources/pose_landmarker_full.task
› ✓ SHA-256 matches manifest    pose_landmarker_full.task
› ✓ model in the app target     pose_landmarker_full.task is a build resource
› – minSdkVersion 24            resolved by the Expo Gradle plugin, not readable from the project
› ✓ iOS deployment target 16.4  found 16.4
› ✓ android.permission.CAMERA   AndroidManifest.xml
› ✗ NSCameraUsageDescription    missing from Info.plist
› 1 of 10 checks failed

Mark	Meaning
✓	checked and correct
✗	checked and wrong. Exits 1
–	could not be checked. Not a failure

The summary line appears only when something failed. A clean run prints the checks and exits 0.

Expo SDK for React Native comes first. Each Expo SDK is built against one React Native, which its expo package names, and npm installs any pairing, since expo accepts any React Native: expo@57 on React Native 0.85 installs cleanly and then fails to compile for Android. The check compares minor versions. A mismatch is a ✗ naming the SDK to install, npm i expo@56 for React Native 0.85 and npm i expo@57 for 0.86, and so is a missing expo, since it is what links this package. A newer React Native gets the newest pair instead, since Expo skips some versions: on 0.87, which has no SDK, the fix is React Native 0.86 with npm i expo@57. So is a version below what this package needs, React Native 0.85 and Expo SDK 56, which yarn, pnpm and --legacy-peer-deps install over with only a warning. With no react-native installed, or an expo that names no React Native, there is nothing to compare, and that is a –.

The – state matters. An Expo prebuild resolves minSdkVersion inside a Gradle plugin, so no file in the project holds the number. Reporting that as a failure would train you to ignore the output, which is worse than not checking it. Bare React Native writes the value into android/build.gradle and expo-build-properties into android/gradle.properties, and it gets checked in either.

android.permission.CAMERA never fails. This package declares the permission in its own manifest and the Android manifest merger adds it to your app, so an app manifest without it is still correct; doctor says where the permission came from rather than calling a working project broken. NSCameraUsageDescription does fail, because iOS has no equivalent merge.

Two models in one directory is a ✗. That's the failure this command exists to catch, because which one wins at load time is not something your app gets to decide. So is a model this package does not install, such as a renamed pose_landmarker_custom.task: the runtime loads any pose_landmarker_*.task, and there is no checksum to hold it to. On iOS, a model beside the sources in ios/<App>/, left by an older install or copied by hand, is bundled too, and gets a ✗ of its own, one model on iOS.

model in the app target is the second one worth knowing about. A .task sitting in ios/<App>/Resources that no target builds is never copied into the bundle, and the app fails at runtime with MODEL_NOT_FOUND even though the file is plainly there. fetch-model produces exactly that state on purpose when expo/config-plugins cannot be resolved, so it has to be checked rather than assumed.

A project with only android/ or only ios/ is checked for that platform, and the other is a –: an app built for one platform has nothing to fix on the other. With neither directory there is nothing to check, and that is a ✗, as is an ios/ with no .xcodeproj in it.

doctor takes no flags and no arguments, and says so rather than ignoring one. doctor --cache-dir /tmp/x reads as a request the tool honors, and it never was one.

Run it first when reporting a setup bug.

clear-cache

npx react-native-pose-detection clear-cache

Takes --cache-dir too. The next fetch-model or prebuild downloads again.

It clears the whole cache, every variant, plus the .part and .lock sidecars the downloader leaves. A lock another process is currently holding is left alone, because deleting it would let a second download start into the same path. It takes no variant argument: clear-cache full reads as clearing one model and it never did that, so it is an error rather than a surprise.