Docs: Fix stale symlink rationale in local development guide - #1904
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Docs: Fix stale symlink rationale in local development guide#1904robhogan wants to merge 1 commit into
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Summary: The local development guide tells you to configure `watchFolders` "as it will not automatically follow the symlinks". Metro does follow symlinks, and has for some time - `metro-file-map` is constructed with `enableSymlinks: true` unconditionally, and there's no longer a config option to turn it off: https://github.com/react/metro/blob/v0.87.0/packages/metro/src/node-haste/DependencyGraph/createFileMap.js#L106 The step itself is still needed, but the reason is that a symlink's target must itself be under `projectRoot` or `watchFolders` to be resolvable, which is how it's already put under [`watchFolders`](https://metrobundler.dev/docs/configuration/#watchfolders). Worth fixing because the old wording sends anyone debugging a half-working `yarn link`ed package after the wrong thing - looking for a way to make Metro follow the link, rather than checking whether its target is watched. That's the same root cause as the `SHA-1 for file ... is not computed` reports. Changelog: [Internal] Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
robhogan
marked this pull request as draft
September 5, 2026 22:24
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Summary:
The local development guide tells you to configure
watchFolders"as it will not automatically follow the symlinks". Metro does follow symlinks, the requirement is that the symlink's target must itself be underprojectRootorwatchFoldersto be resolvable, which is how it's already put under [watchFolders](https://metrobundler.dev/docs/configuration/#watchfoldersChangelog: Internal