Traveloka React Native District System

Junius Ang from Traveloka reveals how their 'District System' lets a 5-person team manage multiple React Native apps across brownfield and greenfield projects. The secret? It's not a framework—it's a reusability-first approach.

Traveloka built District System as their foundation for multiplatform React Native development, supporting both their main hybrid app and standalone greenfield apps. The system evolved through four iterations, from git submodules to a monorepo architecture with Lerna, all centered around maximizing code reuse across Android, iOS, and mobile web.

Key Takeaways

• Single core team of 5 engineers manages 2 greenfield and 1 brownfield app
• Monorepo with Lerna solved multi-repository dependency hell from earlier iterations
• District-template clones bootstrap new apps for Android, iOS, and web instantly
• Design tokens in district-ui enforce consistent styling across all apps
• Only single package versions supported to reduce maintenance costs

The article details their painful first iteration mistakes and why their initial approach with git submodules nearly derailed the entire project.