eas-update-insights
EAS Update Insights
Query the health of published EAS Updates directly from the CLI: launches, failed launches, crash rates, unique users, payload size, the embedded-vs-OTA user split per channel, and the most popular updates per runtime version. The data is the same data that powers the update and channel detail pages on expo.dev; these commands expose it in the terminal in human and JSON form.
When to use this skill
Use this when the user wants to assess the health or adoption of a published EAS Update: crash rates, install counts, unique users, bundle size, or the split between embedded and OTA users on a channel.
Example prompts:
- "How is the latest update doing?"
- "Is the latest update healthy?"
- "Is the new release crashing more than the last one?"
- "How many users are on the latest update vs the embedded build?"
- "Which update is most popular on production right now?"
- "How big is our update bundle?"
Also fits: post-publish rollout monitoring and regression detection.
Don't use when the user needs per-user crash detail or device-level reporting; this skill only exposes aggregate EAS metrics.
Prerequisites
eas-cliinstalled (npm install -g eas-cli).- Logged in:
eas login. - For
channel:insights: run from an Expo project directory (the command resolves the project ID fromapp.json).update:insightsonly needs a login.
Commands at a glance
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
eas update:list |
Discover recent update groups, their group IDs, and branch names |
eas update:insights <groupId> |
Per-platform launches, failed launches, crash rate, unique users, payload size, daily breakdown |
eas update:view <groupId> --insights |
Update group details + the same metrics appended |
eas channel:insights --channel <name> --runtime-version <version> |
Embedded/OTA user counts, most popular updates, cumulative metrics for a channel + runtime |
All of these support --json --non-interactive for programmatic parsing.
Discovering IDs
Before querying insights for an update group, you need its group ID. Use eas update:list with either --branch <name> (updates on that branch) or --all (updates across all branches). Always pass --json --non-interactive when running non-interactively; without a branch/--all flag the command will otherwise prompt for a branch selection:
# Latest group id across all branches
eas update:list --all --json --non-interactive | jq -r '.currentPage[0].group'
# Latest group id on a specific branch
eas update:list --branch production --json --non-interactive | jq -r '.currentPage[0].group'
The JSON response has a currentPage array with one entry per update group (both platforms of the same publish are collapsed into one entry):
{
"currentPage": [
{
"branch": "production",
"message": "\"Fix checkout crash\" (1 week ago by someone)",
"runtimeVersion": "1.0.6",
"group": "03d5dfcf-736c-475a-8730-af039c3f4d06",
"platforms": "android, ios",
"isRollBackToEmbedded": false
}
]
}
Entries also carry codeSigningKey and rolloutPercentage, but only when those features are in use for the group (undefined values are omitted from the JSON output).
When called with --branch <name>, the response also includes name (the branch name) and id (the branch ID) at the top level.
eas update:insights <groupId>
Shows launches, failed launches, crash rate, unique users, launch asset count, and average payload size for a single update group, broken down per platform (iOS, Android), plus a daily breakdown of launches and failures.
Basic use
eas update:insights 03d5dfcf-736c-475a-8730-af039c3f4d06
Flags
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--days <N> |
Look back N days. Default: 7. Mutually exclusive with --start/--end. |
--start <iso-date> / --end <iso-date> |
Explicit time range, e.g. --start 2026-04-01 --end 2026-04-15. |
--platform <ios|android> |
Filter to a single platform. Omit to see all platforms in the group. |
--json |
Machine-readable output. Implies --non-interactive. |
--non-interactive |
Required when scripting. |
JSON output shape
Top level: groupId, timespan (start, end, daysBack), and platforms[] with one entry per platform the group was published to. Each platform entry has updateId, totals (uniqueUsers, installs, failedInstalls, crashRatePercent), payload (launchAssetCount, averageUpdatePayloadBytes), and a daily[] time series of { date, installs, failedInstalls }.
For the complete schema and field reference, see references/update-insights-schema.md.
Fields that matter for health assessment:
platforms[].totals.crashRatePercent, computed asfailedInstalls / (installs + failedInstalls) * 100. Zero when there are no installs.platforms[].totals.installsanduniqueUsersgive the adoption signal.platforms[].dailyis a time series, useful for spotting a sudden spike in failures.
Errors
Could not find any updates with group ID: "<id>"— group doesn't exist or you lack access.Update group "<id>" has no ios update (available platforms: android)—--platform ioswas used but the group wasn't published for iOS.EAS Update insights is not supported by this version of eas-cli. Please upgrade ...— the server deprecated a field the CLI relies on. Runnpm install -g eas-cli@latest.
eas update:view <groupId> --insights
Extends the standard update:view output with the same per-platform insights, inline.
# Human-readable
eas update:view 03d5dfcf-... --insights
eas update:view 03d5dfcf-... --insights --days 30
# JSON: wrapped as { updates: [...], insights: {...} }
eas update:view 03d5dfcf-... --json --insights
Without --insights, update:view behaves exactly as before — no JSON shape change for existing consumers. The --days / --start / --end flags only apply when --insights is set; passing them alone errors.
eas channel:insights --channel <name> --runtime-version <version>
Shows, per channel, how many users are on the embedded build vs over-the-air updates and which updates are pulling the most traffic. Must be run from an Expo project directory.
Basic use
eas channel:insights --channel production --runtime-version 1.0.6
Flags
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--channel <name> |
Required. The channel name (e.g. production, staging). |
--runtime-version <version> |
Required. Match exactly what was published. Check runtimeVersion values in update:list. |
--days <N> |
Look back N days. Default: 7. |
--start / --end |
Explicit time range, like update:insights. |
--json / --non-interactive |
Machine-readable output. |
JSON output shape
Top level: channel, runtimeVersion, timespan, embeddedUpdateTotalUniqueUsers, otaTotalUniqueUsers, mostPopularUpdates[] (each with rank, groupId, message, platform, totalUniqueUsers), cumulativeMetricsAtLastTimestamp[], plus chart-shaped uniqueUsersOverTime and cumulativeMetricsOverTime objects with labels and datasets.
For the complete schema and field reference, see references/channel-insights-schema.md.
Fields that matter:
embeddedUpdateTotalUniqueUsersis the count of users running the embedded (binary-bundled) build.mostPopularUpdates[]is updates ranked bytotalUniqueUsers. Caveat: this is the top-N the server returns;otaTotalUniqueUsersis a sum of that list and may undercount total OTA reach if more than top-N updates are active.uniqueUsersOverTimeandcumulativeMetricsOverTimeare daily data series for charting.
Errors
Could not find channel with the name <name>— typo or wrong account.- "No update launches recorded" in the table / empty
mostPopularUpdatesin JSON — no OTA update has been launched for that channel + runtime yet. Usually means the channel is still serving the embedded build only.
Common workflows
Verify the update I just published is healthy
# 1. Grab the latest publish on production
GROUP_ID=$(eas update:list --branch production --json --non-interactive \
| jq -r '.currentPage[0].group')
# 2. Give it some adoption time (minutes to hours), then check crash rate
eas update:insights "$GROUP_ID" --json --non-interactive \
| jq '.platforms[] | {platform, installs: .totals.installs, crashRate: .totals.crashRatePercent}'
Compare the crashRate across platforms and against previous releases; sudden spikes or asymmetric behaviour (iOS spiking while Android is flat, or vice versa) is the signal to investigate.
Compare adoption between two channels
for channel in production staging; do
echo "--- $channel ---"
eas channel:insights --channel "$channel" --runtime-version 1.0.6 --json --non-interactive \
| jq '{
channel,
embedded: .embeddedUpdateTotalUniqueUsers,
ota: .otaTotalUniqueUsers,
topUpdate: .mostPopularUpdates[0]
}'
done
Detect a rollout regression in the last 24 hours
eas update:insights "$GROUP_ID" --days 1 --json --non-interactive \
| jq '.platforms[] | select(.totals.crashRatePercent > 1)'
Summarize group metrics for release notes
eas update:view "$GROUP_ID" --insights --days 30
Human-readable group details plus 30 days of launches/failures per platform — suitable for pasting into a changelog or incident review.
Output tips
- Pipe JSON through
jq; payloads are structured for easy filtering. --jsonimplies--non-interactive, but passing both is explicit and scripting-friendly.- Dates in
daily[].dateare UTC ISO timestamps; the human-readable table renders them asYYYY-MM-DD(UTC). - The CLI table labels say "Launches" / "Crashes" while JSON uses
installs/failedInstalls. Same field, different display name.
Limitations
- Unique users across platforms may double-count users who run the same publish on both iOS and Android. The same caveat applies to
otaTotalUniqueUsersin channel insights, which is a sum overmostPopularUpdates. - Fresh publishes may show zeros for a short period while the metrics pipeline catches up.
- Installs are downloads, not launches: the
installs/ "Launches" field counts users who downloaded the manifest and launch asset. A confirmed run only registers on the user's next update check (typically up to 24h later, depending on the app's update policy). So metrics lag the real-world state slightly. - Crashes are self-reported:
failedInstalls/ "Crashes" counts updates that errored during install/launch and were reported on the next update check. Crashes that don't trigger an update request (e.g. process kill before recovery) won't appear.