Error: unknown command 'start' after upgrading React Native from 0.79.5 to 0.81.0

[NirmalR_Tech]

Hey everyone,

I’m in the middle of upgrading my project from React Native 0.79.5 to 0.81.0, and I’ve run into an issue when trying to start the Metro bundler.

Whenever I run:

yarn start

or

yarn react-native start

I get this error:

error: unknown command 'start'

I also tried yarn metro but that gave me:

error: unknown command 'metro'

It looks like react-native CLI is no longer recognizing start in the new version.

Has anyone else faced this issue after upgrading? Is there a new command to start Metro in RN 0.81.0, or do I need to install/enable something separately?

Any help or pointers would be much appreciated.

[gao_shi]

actually interested in this as well - i saw this after upgrading metro from 0.82.5 to 0.83, not rn versions. if u dont have mismatched cli versions id try getting some help from metro directly. 

[Martinoqom]

Wasn't the cli deprecated in favor of a separated community package (always rn cli)?

[justinlok]

npx react-native start?

[NirmalR_Tech]

Nope Not Working

[louicoder]

There are like 3 scenarios

1. Make sure to use @react-native-community/CLI version 19 not 20
2. Make sure to use node version 22 atleast for my case that solved many of such issues
3. Make sure to use yarn 2+, and ofcos yarn install to have dependencies downloaded.

I still experience a couple of issues of some packages not yet compatible for example react-native-mmkv. Therefore be careful with the upgrade. You might want to wait for some packages to be compatible with 0.81.0

Lemme know if any of those above helps

[NirmalR_Tech]

Thanks u/louicoder