PostHog Integration for React Native

Set up PostHog analytics in a React Native application: install the SDK, configure the provider, implement event tracking, identify users, and add error tracking.

Workflow

Follow these steps in order:

1. basic-integration-1.0-begin.md - PostHog Setup - Begin Start here
2. basic-integration-1.1-edit.md - PostHog Setup - Edit
3. basic-integration-1.2-revise.md - PostHog Setup - Revise
4. basic-integration-1.3-conclude.md - PostHog Setup - Conclusion

Reference files

• references/EXAMPLE.md - React Native example project code
• references/react-native.md - React Native SDK docs
• references/identify-users.md - User identification docs

Framework guidelines

• Install posthog-react-native and its required peer dependency react-native-svg
• Use react-native-config to load POSTHOG_PROJECT_TOKEN and POSTHOG_HOST from .env (embedded at build time, not runtime)
• Place PostHogProvider INSIDE NavigationContainer for React Navigation v7 compatibility

Minimal provider setup:

import PostHog, { PostHogProvider } from 'posthog-react-native';
import Config from 'react-native-config';

const posthogClient = new PostHog(Config.POSTHOG_PROJECT_TOKEN, {
  host: Config.POSTHOG_HOST,
});

// Inside your App component, wrap content within NavigationContainer:
<NavigationContainer>
  <PostHogProvider client={posthogClient}>
    {/* app content */}
  </PostHogProvider>
</NavigationContainer>

Identifying users

Identify users during login and signup events. Pass the client-side session and distinct ID using X-POSTHOG-DISTINCT-ID and X-POSTHOG-SESSION-ID headers to maintain frontend/backend correlation. Refer to references/identify-users.md and references/EXAMPLE.md for the correct pattern.

Error tracking

Add PostHog error tracking around critical user flows and API boundaries. Capture errors with posthog.capture('$exception', { $exception_message: error.message }).

Verification

After completing the integration:

1. Run the app and trigger a test event
2. Confirm the event appears in the PostHog project dashboard within 60 seconds
3. Verify user identification by checking the "Persons" tab for the identified user