Expo Docs MCP Server

--- title: Using EAS Update description: Learn how to use EAS Update with EAS Build. --- EAS Build includes some special benefits for [`expo-updates`](/versions/latest/sdk/updates/) library. In particular, you can configure the [`channel`](/eas-update/how-it-works/#distributing-builds) property in **eas.json** and EAS Build will take care of updating it in your native project at build time. This document covers concerns specific to using `expo-updates` library with EAS Build. For more general information about configuring the library with EAS Update, see [Getting started with EAS Update ](/eas-update/getting-started/). ## Setting the channel for a build profile Each [build profile](/build/eas-json/#build-profiles) can be assigned to a channel, so updates for builds produced for a given profile will pull only those releases that are published to its channel. The following example demonstrates how you might use the `"production"` channel for production builds, and the `"staging"` channel for test builds distributed with [internal distribution](/build/internal-distribution/). ```json eas.json { "build": { "production": { "channel": "production" }, "preview": { "channel": "staging", "distribution": "internal" } } } ``` ## Binary compatibility and runtime versions Your native runtime may change on each build, depending on whether you modify the code in a way that changes the API contract with JavaScript. If you publish a JavaScript bundle to a binary with an incompatible native runtime (for example, a function that the JavaScript bundle expects to exist does not exist) then your app may not work as expected, or it may crash. We recommend using a different [runtime version](/distribution/runtime-versions/) for each binary version of your app. Any time you change the native runtime (in managed apps, this happens when you add or remove a native library, or modify **app.json**), you should increment the runtime version. ## Previewing updates in development builds Updates published with the `runtimeVersion` field can't be loaded in Expo Go. Instead, you should use [`expo-dev-client`](/versions/latest/sdk/dev-client/) to create a development build. ## Environment variables and `eas update` Environment variables set on the `env` field in build profiles are not available when you run `eas update`. Learn more about using [environment variables with EAS Update](/eas-update/environment-variables).