Bitrise + Detox + React-native - Hello World Example hangs on detox.init - react-native

Question

I'm trying to get the react-native "Hello World" app setup with Detox and running on Bitrise.io. I went through the react-native-cli getting started guide and am trying to run the simplest detox test using Detox + Jest on Bitrise with it.
The specific error I'm encountering is the device and element globals not being defined (see log or in the link below). From what I've researched so far, this is caused by detox.init not ever finishing.
Is there some basic config with Bitrise that I'm missing? The detox test command runs locally for me just fine.
I'm using a free Bitrise account, and the project is public. You can see a failed build here: https://app.bitrise.io/build/e7926ddfc759288f#?tab=log
The repo is also public: https://github.com/jamesopti/react-native-test/blob/add_detox/AwesomeProject/e2e/firstTest.spec.js
Thanks in advance!
Bitrise Error Log
Example: should have welcome screen
Example: should have welcome screen [FAIL]
FAIL e2e/firstTest.spec.js (122.008s)
Example
✕ should have welcome screen (8ms)
● Example › should have welcome screen
Timeout - Async callback was not invoked within the 120000ms timeout specified by jest.setTimeout.Error: Timeout - Async callback was not invoked within the 120000ms timeout specified by jest.setTimeout.
at mapper (../node_modules/jest-jasmine2/build/queueRunner.js:25:45)
● Example › should have welcome screen
ReferenceError: device is not defined
1 | describe('Example', () => {
2 | beforeEach(async () => {
> 3 | await device.reloadReactNative();
| ^
4 | });
5 |
6 | it('should have welcome screen', async () => {
bitrise.yml
---
format_version: '8'
default_step_lib_source: https://github.com/bitrise-io/bitrise-steplib.git
project_type: react-native
trigger_map:
- push_branch: "*"
workflow: primary
- pull_request_source_branch: "*"
workflow: primary
workflows:
deploy:
description: "## ..."
steps:
- activate-ssh-key#4.0.3:
run_if: '{{getenv "SSH_RSA_PRIVATE_KEY" | ne ""}}'
- git-clone#4.0.17: {}
- script#1.1.5:
title: Do anything with Script step
- yarn#0.1.0:
inputs:
- workdir: AwesomeProject
- command: install
- install-missing-android-tools#2.3.7:
inputs:
- gradlew_path: "$PROJECT_LOCATION/gradlew"
- android-build#0.10.0:
inputs:
- project_location: "$PROJECT_LOCATION"
- certificate-and-profile-installer#1.10.1: {}
- xcode-archive#2.7.0:
inputs:
- project_path: "$BITRISE_PROJECT_PATH"
- scheme: "$BITRISE_SCHEME"
- export_method: "$BITRISE_EXPORT_METHOD"
- configuration: Release
- deploy-to-bitrise-io#1.9.2: {}
primary:
steps:
- activate-ssh-key#4.0.3:
run_if: '{{getenv "SSH_RSA_PRIVATE_KEY" | ne ""}}'
- git-clone#4.0.17: {}
- yarn#0.1.0:
inputs:
- workdir: AwesomeProject
- command: install
title: Yarn Install
- yarn#0.1.0:
inputs:
- workdir: AwesomeProject
- command: test
title: Unit tests
after_run:
- detox
detox:
steps:
- cocoapods-install#1.9.1:
inputs:
- source_root_path: "$BITRISE_SOURCE_DIR/AwesomeProject/ios"
- npm#1.1.0:
title: Install Global
inputs:
- workdir: "$BITRISE_SOURCE_DIR/AwesomeProject"
- command: install -g detox-cli react-native-cli
- script#1.1.5:
inputs:
- working_dir: "$BITRISE_SOURCE_DIR/AwesomeProject"
- content: |-
#!/usr/bin/env bash
brew tap facebook/fb
export CODE_SIGNING_REQUIRED=NO
brew install fbsimctl
brew tap wix/brew
brew install applesimutils --HEAD
title: Install detox utils
- script#1.1.5:
inputs:
- working_dir: "$BITRISE_SOURCE_DIR/AwesomeProject"
- content: |-
#!/usr/bin/env bash
detox build --configuration ios.sim.debug
title: Detox Build
- script#1.1.5:
inputs:
- working_dir: "$BITRISE_SOURCE_DIR/AwesomeProject"
- content: |-
#!/usr/bin/env bash
detox test --configuration ios.sim.debug --cleanup
title: Detox Test
app:
envs:
- opts:
is_expand: false
PROJECT_LOCATION: AwesomeProject/android
- opts:
is_expand: false
MODULE: app
- opts:
is_expand: false
VARIANT: ''
- opts:
is_expand: false
BITRISE_PROJECT_PATH: AwesomeProject/ios/AwesomeProject.xcworkspace
- opts:
is_expand: false
BITRISE_SCHEME: AwesomeProject
- opts:
is_expand: false
BITRISE_EXPORT_METHOD: ad-hoc
meta:
bitrise.io:
machine_type: elite

Answer 1

Unfortunately, this is a very generic bug and can be caused by multiple things (incompatible OS/jest + detox versions/node + detox versions, etc).
If you're using MacOS, an option you can take in able to check what's going wrong in Bitrise's VM is connecting via Screen Sharing: I'd suggest adding a while someFileDoesntExist (to stop iteration naturally without the abort button) in your current workflow after the packages installation steps (node, detox, jest etc) and then checking if its the same one you're running locally.
If that's not the case, check if the VM is running the same simulator -- phone model && OS version; if its not, then you can specify the simulator & OS version in your detox configuration.
If that also didn't work, I'm not sure what it could be :(