iOS old architecture cannot find libsodium because Clibsodium.xcframework is missing from npm package

[charleyoliveira]

Summary

When using react-native-libsodium 1.5.0 on the old React Native architecture (ENV['RCT_NEW_ARCH_ENABLED'] != '1'), pod install completes but the Xcode build still fails because the podspec points to a non-existent XCFramework:

s.vendored_frameworks = "libsodium/build/libsodium-apple/Clibsodium.xcframework"

The npm package only ships the static libraries (ios/lib/libsodium.a and ios-simulators/lib/libsodium.a), so CocoaPods can’t find the expected Clibsodium.xcframework and linking fails (ld: library 'sodium' not found).

Steps to reproduce

1. Install react-native-libsodium@1.5.0 in a project that still uses the old architecture.
2. Run cd ios && pod install.
3. Build for the iOS simulator.

Expected

pod install and the Xcode link step succeed because the vendored framework exists.

Actual

pod install completes, but building the app fails with ld: library 'sodium' not found unless I manually create libsodium/build/libsodium-apple/Clibsodium.xcframework on my machine.

# local workaround (needed to unblock builds)
xcodebuild -create-xcframework \
  -library node_modules/react-native-libsodium/libsodium/build/libsodium-apple/ios/lib/libsodium.a \
  -headers node_modules/react-native-libsodium/libsodium/build/libsodium-apple/ios/include \
  -library node_modules/react-native-libsodium/libsodium/build/libsodium-apple/ios-simulators/lib/libsodium.a \
  -headers node_modules/react-native-libsodium/libsodium/build/libsodium-apple/ios-simulators/include \
  -output node_modules/react-native-libsodium/libsodium/build/libsodium-apple/Clibsodium.xcframework

Proposed fix

Either:

1. Ship libsodium/build/libsodium-apple/Clibsodium.xcframework inside the npm tarball, matching the current podspec.

[emenocal07]

Confirming this issue, also happening to me:

• Just upgraded to react-native 0.81
• New arch enabled
• react-native-libsodium 1.5.0

pod install goes well but when trying to compile in xcode, the following error appears:

.../node_modules/react-native-libsodium/cpp/react-native-libsodium.cpp:2:10: fatal error: 'sodium.h' file not found 2 | #include <sodium.h> // libsodium | ^~~~~~~~~~ 1 error generated.

When looking for the XCFramework in node_modules I find it doesn´t exist

[lisimba]

I also experienced this issue with react-native 0.81 and react-native-libsodium 1.50.

@charleyoliveira - thank you for the work-around, it unblocked me. I'm considering a patch but want to understand a little bit more about the issue. Can you let me know how you worked out the fix? Also, would the build file https://github.com/serenity-kit/react-native-libsodium/blob/main/libsodium/build.sh be the correct place to add your command?

[charleyoliveira]

Hi @lisimba ! I created a workaround script that runs in the postinstall hook to handle this issue until the maintainer resolves the root cause.

I added this to my package.json:

"postinstall": "patch-package && chmod a+x ./scripts/sodium-framework.sh && ./scripts/sodium-framework.sh"

And created this script at ./scripts/sodium-framework.sh:

#!/bin/bash

# Script to fix react-native-libsodium XCFramework issue
# Reference: react-native-libsodium-issue.md

# In Linux environments (e.g., Ubuntu CI agents), the `xcodebuild` command doesn't exist.
# In these cases, we just skip XCFramework creation without failing the job.
if ! command -v xcodebuild >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "ℹ️ xcodebuild not found. Skipping Clibsodium.xcframework creation (non-macOS environment)."
  exit 0
fi

LIBSODIUM_PATH="node_modules/react-native-libsodium/libsodium/build/libsodium-apple"
XCFRAMEWORK_PATH="$LIBSODIUM_PATH/Clibsodium.xcframework"

if [ -d "$XCFRAMEWORK_PATH" ]; then
  exit 0
fi

if [ ! -f "$LIBSODIUM_PATH/ios/lib/libsodium.a" ]; then
  exit 0
fi

echo "🔧 Creating Clibsodium.xcframework..."

xcodebuild -create-xcframework \
  -library "$LIBSODIUM_PATH/ios/lib/libsodium.a" \
  -headers "$LIBSODIUM_PATH/ios/include" \
  -library "$LIBSODIUM_PATH/ios-simulators/lib/libsodium.a" \
  -headers "$LIBSODIUM_PATH/ios-simulators/include" \
  -output "$XCFRAMEWORK_PATH"

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "✅ Clibsodium.xcframework created successfully!"
else
  echo "❌ Error creating Clibsodium.xcframework"
  exit 1
fi

This approach works well because:

• It runs automatically after npm install / yarn install
• It works both locally and in CI environments
• It gracefully handles non-macOS environments (like Linux CI agents) by skipping the XCFramework creation without failing

Hope this helps others facing the same issue!