#Prior Art

Rozenite wouldn't exist without the work that came before it. We want to thank the teams behind the tools that taught us what React Native debugging could be and helped us understand what developers actually need.

#Flipper

Flipper showed us that React Native debugging didn't have to be stuck with basic logging. The idea of having plugins for debugging was pretty cool, and seeing developers build custom panels for their specific needs opened our eyes to what was missing in the ecosystem.

We learned a lot from watching Flipper's journey—both what worked well and what was challenging to maintain. That experience helped us think about how to build something that would integrate better with existing tools and be easier to keep running.

#Expo Dev Tools Plugins

The Expo team has always been great at making complicated things simple. Their dev tools plugins showed us how debugging tools could just work without a bunch of setup. We really admire how they think about developer experience - if something is hard to use, people won't use it.

That philosophy of "make it easy" is something we think about a lot when working on Rozenite. The way Expo approaches tooling has definitely influenced how we want people to feel when they use our stuff.

#Reactotron

Reactotron was one of the first tools that let you see what was happening in your React Native app in real time. Before tools like this, debugging React Native felt pretty limited. Reactotron showed us that having a dedicated space for debugging could be really valuable.

We appreciate how much thought went into making Reactotron's interface clean and easy to understand. When you're trying to debug something, the last thing you want is for your debugging tool to be confusing.

#React Native DevTools

The React Native DevTools team at Meta built the foundation that makes Rozenite possible. Instead of building yet another debugging app, we wanted to extend what was already there and working well.

Their work on integrating with Chrome DevTools means developers can use familiar tools, and we get to build on top of something that's actively maintained and improved. We're grateful that they've created such a solid base for the community to build on.

#What's Next

These tools taught us what developers need and helped us understand the problems that still need solving. We hope Rozenite can be useful to the community and maybe help other people build even better debugging tools in the future.