Config plugin

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      ["react-native-pose-detection", {
        "model": "full",
        "cameraPermissionText": "We use the camera to analyze your movement."
      }]
    ]
  }
}

Options

Option	Type	Default	Notes
model	'lite' | 'full' | 'heavy'	'full'	exactly one is installed. Case-sensitive: anything else fails the prebuild
cameraPermissionText	string	see below	iOS NSCameraUsageDescription
cacheDir	string	~/.cache/react-native-pose-detection	used as given: a ~ in your value is not expanded
skipDownload	boolean	false	CI where the model is vendored, see offline

What it does at prebuild

1. resolve model → URL + SHA-256 from the manifest
2. cache hit?  → verify it        cache miss? → download
3. verify SHA-256: a download that does not match fails the build;
   a damaged cache entry is fetched again
4. remove every pose_landmarker_*.task from both native projects
5. copy → android/app/src/main/assets/
   copy → ios/<App>/Resources/  + register in the Xcode project
6. write camera permission into Info.plist and AndroidManifest.xml

Step 4 is why switching variants never leaves two models in the build. It removes every model file it finds, not just the variant you were using before, so a rename or a hand-copied file gets cleaned up too, in android/app/src/main/assets/, ios/<App>/Resources/ and beside the sources in ios/<App>/. On iOS that includes unregistering the old file from the app target.

The Android and iOS passes run in the same process and share one download, so a cold cache fetches the file once, not twice.

The copy is verified again after it lands in the native project, not only in the cache. That is the step that puts bytes into your build, and the cache file it reads from is shared with every other process on the machine. A copy that does not match is deleted and the prebuild fails.

Camera permission text

cameraPermissionText wins over everything. With it unset, a NSCameraUsageDescription already in your app config wins over the plugin's generic fallback, because that is you being specific and the fallback is not. The fallback, This app uses the camera to analyse your movement., is only written when nothing else said anything. Android needs no text: the plugin adds android.permission.CAMERA to the app manifest.

Downloading

Downloads land in a .part file next to the target and are only renamed into place after the checksum matches. An interrupted prebuild leaves a partial file rather than a short one that looks complete, and the next run resumes it with a range request instead of starting over.

A cached file is re-verified on every prebuild, not trusted because it exists. That costs a few milliseconds and catches a cache damaged by a full disk or an interrupted copy. If a cached file fails, it is deleted and fetched again; the fresh copy still has to verify or the build fails. Under skipDownload it is kept instead, see offline. See ADR 0006.

Model sizes

Model	Adds to app	Best for
lite	~5.5 MB	budget Android, high frame rates
full	~9.0 MB	most apps
heavy	~29.2 MB	accuracy-critical, flagships

full is the default on both platforms. An app aimed at budget Android phones gets more frames from lite: a Redmi Note 12 runs full at about 10 fps and lite at about 15. See budget Android phones.

Offline

A cache hit needs no network. A cache miss with no network fails with the URL and cache path so you can place the file manually.

skipDownload: true never touches the network at all. On a cache hit it installs as usual; on a cache miss it prints a warning and leaves the model files in both native projects as they were, so a vendored model already committed to your repo is not deleted by a build that cannot reach the CDN. A cached file that fails verification is kept rather than deleted, since this machine cannot fetch another, and nothing is installed from it.

The rest of the prebuild still runs. The Xcode project is set to reference ios/<App>/Resources/pose_landmarker_<model>.task and the camera permission is written, so a vendored model has to be the variant model names, or the iOS build cannot find the file.

CI

Cache ~/.cache/react-native-pose-detection between runs to skip the download. On EAS, prebuild runs inside the build container. The download happens there, once per build unless you cache it.

Progress output is suppressed when CI is set or stdout is not a terminal, so a build log gets three lines instead of a few thousand carriage returns.