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Szymon Chmal

Szymon Chmal

I lead the Incubator team at Callstack, where we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with React Native even further. I’m also part of the Microsoft MVP program. I’ve created a couple of libraries used by many React Native developers in their day-to-day work: Rozenite, Harness, and Voltra. Most of my work lives somewhere between developer tooling, React Native internals, and figuring out how to make things work even when they probably shouldn’t.
Callstack, Incubator Lead, Poland, Toruńchmal.itChmalSzymonV3RONszymon-chmalchmal.it
How I Hacked React Native DevTools (And Built a Plugin Framework)
React Advanced 2025React Advanced 2025
20 min
How I Hacked React Native DevTools (And Built a Plugin Framework)
Ever wondered how React Native DevTools work under the hood? I went down the rabbit hole, reverse-engineered the whole thing, and figured out how to inject custom code - no forks, just a bit of hackery. In this talk, I’ll walk you through the journey: how the DevTools architecture works, how I hooked into it cleanly, and how that led to building a framework for writing your own plugins, complete with React-based UIs and sandboxed execution. Let’s make DevTools truly extensible.
devtools
Astro – Island Technology in the Name of Optimization
React Advanced 2024React Advanced 2024
20 min
Astro – Island Technology in the Name of Optimization
Next.js is the default choice for most teams, although there are many other solutions on the market. One of such solutions is Astro, which in certain areas, due to its eccentric approach, seems to outclass the Vercel king. During this lecture, I will present the key features of Astro, as well as the differences between it and the aforementioned Next.js. You will learn what interactive islands are, why MPA (multi-page application) is still a very good choice for content-driven websites, and much more. Who knows - maybe you will use Astro in your next project?
fullstackframeworksastro