text-start/text-end silently dropped — parseTextAlign rejects logical values

[Noitidart]

Describe the bug

The text-start and text-end utility classes from Tailwind CSS v4 are silently dropped. No alignment is applied — the builder emits a warning but no error.

Root cause

parseTextAlign in react-native-css/compiler/declarations.ts only allows ["auto", "left", "right", "center", "justify"]. Tailwind v4 generates text-align: start/end for text-start/text-end, which are rejected.

React Native does not accept "start"/"end" as textAlign values. However, per Expo's localization guide, RN's "left" already behaves as logical start on <Text> (flips to right in RTL), and "right" as logical end.

Proposed fix

Map at compile time in parseTextAlign:

if (value === "start") return "left";
if (value === "end") return "right";

No runtime changes needed — RN handles the RTL flipping natively on <Text>. (Note: <TextInput> treats left/right as physical values — see facebook/react-native#45255.)

Reproduction

• Bug branch: https://github.com/Noitidart/nativewind-v5-rtl-bugs/tree/issue-3-text-start-end
• Fix branch (patch-package): https://github.com/Noitidart/nativewind-v5-rtl-bugs/tree/issue-3-text-start-end-fix

Steps:

1. npm install && npx expo run:ios
2. Press "Force RTL" button
3. Fully restart the app
4. The text-start class should align the text right in RTL, but no alignment is applied

Expected behavior

text-start should apply textAlign: "left" (which RN treats as logical start, flipping to right in RTL on <Text>).

Workaround

Use patch-package with the patch from the fix branch.

Environment

• react-native-css: 3.0.7
• nativewind: 5.0.0-preview.4
• react-native: 0.86.0
• expo: 57

[github-actions]

❓ Inconclusive

Our automated reproduction pipeline could not conclusively judge this bug. See the CI run for the captured evidence. A maintainer will take a closer look.

The iOS build completed successfully but the JavaScript bundle was not embedded in the app, preventing the user code from executing. Without runtime evidence (no app console output, snapshots, or device logs captured), we cannot confirm whether the reported text-start/text-end alignment bug actually occurs.

Platform	Verdict	Evidence
ios	inconclusive	Build succeeded but no main.jsbundle was embedded (repro_status: 'bundle-missing'). User JavaScript never ran, so we cannot observe whether text-start/text-end classes were silently dropped or applied correctly.

_{Automated by .github/workflows/issue-repro.yml using agent-device. Workflow run: https://github.com/nativewind/nativewind/actions/runs/29952444190}