Expo API Routes

Overview

Expo API Routes let you write server-side endpoints alongside your React Native app code. Routes use the +api.ts file suffix and run on the server, never shipped to the client bundle. This keeps credentials secure and enables direct database access.

Core principle: API routes are server-only code collocated with your app. They deploy to EAS Hosting (Cloudflare Workers) and handle standard HTTP request/response patterns.

When to Use

• Protecting API keys, database credentials, or third-party secrets from the client
• Building webhooks (Stripe, payment processors, push notification services)
• Performing server-side data validation or transformation
• Connecting directly to databases (Neon, Supabase, PlanetScale, Turso)
• Proxying requests to external APIs with rate limiting
• Server-side rendering or data aggregation

File Convention