In this article, I’m showing you a new workflow to build mobile apps, specifically Expo apps. We’ll be using TempoLabs, a solid AI-powered builder that excels in building React apps. Along with that, we’ll also use Cursor.
I’ll walk you through how and why you should start in TempoLabs. It generates your Product Requirements Document (PRD) and user flow, which helps shape a better experience for your app’s users.
Integrating with Cursor
Now, here is how Cursor comes into the workflow. If you don’t want to code directly in Tempo Labs or prefer making changes yourself, you can open the project in Cursor. From there, you can create context, provide instructions, and continue building.
Starting the Project in TempoLabs
Right now, I’m here in Tempo and I’m giving it the prompt to build the app. It’s a pretty extensive prompt. I generated the app details on how it should function—not the technical parts, just my requirements—and gave them to Tempo Labs. I’ve selected the Expo framework here and I’ll give it the prompt.
It’s setting up the project. The first thing it starts with is the PRD. You can see that the PRD has been generated. Once that’s done, it generates the user flow. This is where Tempo Labs stands out in a creative workflow compared to something like Cursor or Windsurf. It’s because of what it can do; it’s a builder made for React apps, and it specializes in them. Since that’s its focus, it performs better when it comes to planning, designing, and linking everything. If you want to collaborate with someone else—for example, if you’re only handling the design and someone else is going to build the app—you can link it with their editor.
Now that the PRD is ready, I’m reading through it, and they’ve outlined the essential features we need. If you open the user flow, you’ll see how the whole experience is structured.
Here is a summary of the user flow:
- When the app opens, the user sees the home screen.
- From there, everything connects. Every interaction is laid out, even down to the animations.
- All the routes are listed as well.
The mermaid diagram makes the user experience clear. You can also edit it by just asking the agent; it’s that easy.
The development server is starting now. Expo apps take a little time to boot up. Once it’s ready, it’ll generate designs from the PRD, open up the storyboard, create the designs, and link them. You’ll see exactly how the app will look.
The Design and Storyboard
In the design tab, you can see it’s building out all the sections on the storyboard in real time. It starts putting them together one by one. These wireframes are generated based on our PRD and the mermaid diagram. Now you can see the storyboards haven’t fully generated yet. We’ve got the main homepage here and the settings panel next to it. They’re also divided into components. The entire app has been laid out on the storyboard.
Setting Up Local Editing with Cursor
If you want to continue in Cursor or Windsurf, here’s what you’ll do next. You’ll see a little icon called “local editing.” Open it up. The first thing you’ll notice is that it asks you to install an extension. Go to your editor; for this article, I’m using Cursor.
- Open the extensions tab and search for “TempoLabs”.
- You’ll see the TempoLabs extension right there. Open it and install it.
- The extension is now installed. Next, choose the editor you want to use from the tab. I’ll choose Cursor.
- Open it up, allow the connection, and it’ll link to your editor.
It opens up a new app and connects through SSH, which is pretty cool. Now the app is imported into Cursor, and we can start building right here.
Continuing the Build in Cursor
Now that I have the app open, this is how I continue building. I copy the entire PRD along with the mermaid diagram and drop it into a docs folder I’ve created. Inside that folder, I’ve added a PRD.md file where I’ve pasted both the PRD and the mermaid diagram. It’s already formatted, and you also don’t need to do that manually; just ask Cursor to do it or drop both into ChatGPT and have it formatted automatically.
Once it’s done, Cursor can easily access it and understands the full context. Another great part of this sync is that it works both ways. As you can see, the docs folder I created also appears in Tempo. Now we’re ready to continue building the Expo app.
The Final App and Bug Fixes
Now you can see the app has been built. It’s a simple mood tracker made with Expo. I used a prompt to ask Cursor to build it. It read the PRD and continued the process according to that. I was using Gemini 2.5 Pro, so there weren’t many issues.
There were a few UI errors, though. For example, when I enable dark mode, you can see that the app changes the theme, but initially, this whole section didn’t adapt to the change. I tried fixing it in Cursor with Gemini 2.5, but it didn’t work. In the end, I just prompted the Tempo Labs AI agent, and it fixed the issue. It’s clear Tempo is really solid for React-based tasks.
The app is now functional. You can open any day section you want and log the mood that you are feeling for that day. There are still a few small UI bugs to sort out, but everything works.
Note: One thing to note, the pinch functionality doesn’t work on my desktop. I loaded the app on my mobile using the Expo Go app, and it worked fine there. It was also much smoother; the jittering you see here wasn’t present on my phone.
Beyond Expo Apps
The good thing about Tempo Labs is that it lets you build more than just Expo apps. You can also create full Next.js web apps with it. It comes with pre-configured integrations like authentication, database, and payments using popular tools such as Superbase and Stripe. It gives you a quick start if you’re setting up a SaaS business. We’ve also made a dedicated article that walks you through setting up a SaaS with TempoLabs and connecting these integrations, so make sure to check that out too.
Tempo Labs does the heavy lifting, turning your idea into specs, flows, and wireframes in minutes. Cursor then lets you refine the code locally without breaking that AI-generated structure. Together, they cut planning and iteration time to near zero, so you launch apps faster and with more confidence.