Detox migration

SootSim provides a drop-in Detox driver that runs your existing Detox tests against the canvas simulator instead of a native iOS simulator.

What works unchanged

• by.id(), by.text(), by.label() matchers
• element().tap(), .longPress(), .typeText()
• expect().toExist(), .toBeVisible(), .toHaveText()
• waitFor().toExist().withTimeout()
• device.launchApp(), device.reloadReactNative()

How to migrate

1. Install SootSim

bun add sootsim

2. Run your tests

sootsim test --detox

SootSim auto-detects your Detox config (.detoxrc.js, detox.config.js, or package.json#detox) and runs your test files with its driver.

3. Fix native-specific tests

Some Detox features depend on native capabilities that SootSim simulates differently:

4. Add to CI

# replace native detox in CI
sootsim test --detox --reporter junit

Benefits over native Detox in CI:

• No iOS simulator — runs on Linux CI runners
• No Xcode — no build step needed
• Faster — no native compilation
• Cheaper — use standard Ubuntu runners instead of macOS

Keeping both

You can keep native Detox tests alongside SootSim:

{
  "scripts": {
    "test:native": "detox test",
    "test:sootsim": "sootsim test --detox"
  }
}

Run SootSim in CI for fast feedback, native Detox for final validation.