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Sentry Integration

This setup forwards JavaScript exceptions and native crash messages into Sentry while keeping react-native-global-exception-handler as the place where your app registers handlers.

When this setup is a good fit​

  • You already use @sentry/react-native.
  • You want one React Native exception handler for both JS and native failures.
  • You need a documented path from install to crash-report verification.

Install the required packages​

Install both libraries if Sentry is not already present:

npm install react-native-global-exception-handler @sentry/react-native
cd ios && pod install

Then finish the base package setup from Installation.

Register Sentry in your app entry point​

Initialize Sentry before you register the exception handlers.

import * as Sentry from '@sentry/react-native';

Sentry.init({
  dsn: 'https://examplePublicKey@o0.ingest.sentry.io/0',
  tracesSampleRate: 0.1,
});

Send JavaScript exceptions to Sentry​

For most apps, this is the minimum JavaScript integration:

import { setJSExceptionHandler } from 'react-native-global-exception-handler';

setJSExceptionHandler((error, isFatal) => {
  Sentry.captureException(error, {
    level: isFatal ? 'fatal' : 'error',
    tags: {
      layer: 'javascript',
      isFatal: String(isFatal),
    },
  });
}, true);

Use true for the second argument if you also want to validate JS handling in development.

If another library already installed a JS handler, you can chain it:

import {
  getJSExceptionHandler,
  setJSExceptionHandler,
} from 'react-native-global-exception-handler';

const previousHandler = getJSExceptionHandler();

setJSExceptionHandler((error, isFatal) => {
  Sentry.captureException(error);
  if (previousHandler) {
    previousHandler(error, isFatal);
  }
}, true);

Send native crash messages to Sentry​

The native side is usually just message forwarding plus minimal tags:

import { Platform } from 'react-native';
import { setNativeExceptionHandler } from 'react-native-global-exception-handler';

setNativeExceptionHandler((errorString) => {
  Sentry.captureMessage(errorString, {
    level: 'fatal',
    tags: {
      layer: 'native',
      platform: Platform.OS,
    },
  });
}, {
  forceAppToQuit: Platform.OS === 'android',
  callPreviouslyDefinedHandler: false,
});

If you already have another native handler in place and want to preserve it:

setNativeExceptionHandler((errorString) => {
  Sentry.captureMessage(errorString, { level: 'fatal' });
}, {
  forceAppToQuit: Platform.OS === 'android',
  callPreviouslyDefinedHandler: true,
});

Complete example​

import { Platform } from 'react-native';
import * as Sentry from '@sentry/react-native';
import {
  setJSExceptionHandler,
  setNativeExceptionHandler,
} from 'react-native-global-exception-handler';

Sentry.init({
  dsn: 'https://examplePublicKey@o0.ingest.sentry.io/0',
});

setJSExceptionHandler((error, isFatal) => {
  Sentry.captureException(error, {
    level: isFatal ? 'fatal' : 'error',
    tags: { layer: 'javascript' },
  });
}, true);

setNativeExceptionHandler((errorString) => {
  Sentry.captureMessage(errorString, {
    level: 'fatal',
    tags: { layer: 'native', platform: Platform.OS },
  });
}, {
  forceAppToQuit: Platform.OS === 'android',
  callPreviouslyDefinedHandler: false,
});

Limitations and caveats​

  • Native crash handlers run very late in the failure path, so keep the handler lightweight.
  • iOS cannot reliably support interactive UI after a native crash. Review Native Crash Handling before building a custom fallback.
  • Some fatal native crashes can terminate the app before asynchronous work completes. If you need stronger guarantees, pair this with server-side deduplication and device-side buffering strategies.

Verify the integration​

  1. Follow the Getting Started setup if you have not registered handlers yet.
  2. Trigger a JS exception and confirm it appears in Sentry.
  3. Test a release-build native crash using Simulate Native Crash in React Native.
  4. Review Troubleshooting if native callbacks do not fire in development.

Next steps​