symbolication-setup

Make crash stack traces readable instead of memory addresses or minified code.

Why It Matters

Without symbolication:

0x104a3b2c8 <redacted> + 123

With symbolication:

PaymentViewController.processPayment() line 47

Unsymbolicated crashes are useless for debugging.

Platform Setup

iOS (dSYMs)

Xcode Build Phase Script:

# Add to Build Phases → New Run Script Phase
if [ "${CONFIGURATION}" = "Release" ]; then
    # Sentry
    sentry-cli upload-dif --include-sources "${DWARF_DSYM_FOLDER_PATH}"

    # Or Crashlytics
    "${PODS_ROOT}/FirebaseCrashlytics/upload-symbols" \
        -gsp "${PROJECT_DIR}/GoogleService-Info.plist" \
        -p ios "${DWARF_DSYM_FOLDER_PATH}"
fi

Find missing dSYMs:

# Recent archives
find ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives -name "*.dSYM" -mtime -7

# Verify UUID matches
dwarfdump --uuid MyApp.app.dSYM

Android (ProGuard/R8)

build.gradle.kts:

android {
    buildTypes {
        release {
            isMinifyEnabled = true
            proguardFiles(
                getDefaultProguardFile("proguard-android-optimize.txt"),
                "proguard-rules.pro"
            )
        }
    }
}

// Sentry auto-upload
sentry {
    autoUploadProguardMapping.set(true)
    uploadNativeSymbols.set(true)
}

// Or manual upload in CI
// sentry-cli upload-proguard --android-manifest app/build/.../AndroidManifest.xml mapping.txt

Keep rules for crash reporting:

# proguard-rules.pro
-keepattributes SourceFile,LineNumberTable
-renamesourcefileattribute SourceFile

# Keep Sentry classes
-keep class io.sentry.** { *; }

React Native (Source Maps)

Expo (app.json):

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      ["@sentry/react-native/expo", {
        "organization": "your-org",
        "project": "your-project"
      }]
    ],
    "hooks": {
      "postPublish": [{
        "file": "sentry-expo/upload-sourcemaps"
      }]
    }
  }
}

Bare React Native (CI):

# After build
sentry-cli releases files $VERSION upload-sourcemaps \
    --dist $BUILD_NUMBER \
    ./build/sourcemaps

Hermes bytecode:

# Hermes requires source maps - verify with:
sentry-cli sourcemaps explain <event-id>

Verification Checklist

• [ ] Release builds upload symbols automatically
• [ ] CI pipeline includes symbol upload step
• [ ] Test crash shows readable stack trace
• [ ] Source maps include original source (not just line numbers)
• [ ] Build numbers match between app and uploaded symbols

Common Issues

| Symptom | Cause | Fix | |---------|-------|-----| | <redacted> in stack | Missing dSYM | Upload dSYM for that build | | Line numbers wrong | Source map mismatch | Verify release/dist strings match | | Only framework symbols | App dSYM missing | Check archive includes app dSYM | | <unknown> in RN | Hermes without source maps | Configure Hermes source map generation |

Vendor Commands

| Vendor | Verify Upload | |--------|---------------| | Sentry | sentry-cli debug-files check <UUID> | | Crashlytics | Firebase Console → Crashlytics → Missing dSYMs | | Bugsnag | bugsnag-cli upload with --dry-run | | Datadog | Dashboard → Error Tracking → Symbol Files | | bitdrift | Dashboard or CLI for dSYM, Gradle plugin for ProGuard | | New Relic | iOS dSYM via build script or newrelic-cli; Android ProGuard auto-uploaded by NR Gradle plugin |

Related Skills

• See skills/crash-instrumentation for breadcrumb strategies and crash context
• Symbolication is Tier 1 in skills/instrumentation-planning