When you build layouts in React Native , you write styles that look a lot like CSS: flexDirection , alignItems , justifyContent , and so on. But here's the interesting part: There's no browser. So… what's actually calculating your layout? That's where Yoga comes in. What is Yoga? Yoga is an open-source, embeddable, high-performance layout engine that implements a subset of CSS Flexbox (and evolving toward broader web standards). It calculates the size and position of UI elements ("boxes") based on styles like flex properties, margins, padding, and alignment. Written primarily in C++ (with earlier C implementations), Yoga is not a full UI framework, it does no drawing or rendering. Your Code (JS) ↓ React Native ↓ 🧠 Yoga (calculates layout) ↓ Native Views (iOS / Android) Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode How Did Yoga Come About? Early on, Meta/Facebook faced a big challenge: building consistent layouts across platforms.…