IntelliJ React Native - Unhandled JS Exception - Maximum call stack size exceeded

I wasted several hours tying to isolate this problem so I’m posting quickly for others.

Unhandled JS Exception: Maximum call stack size exceeded
...
in index.ios.bundle during use of `regenerator-runtime/runtime` with a getValue() method

This error is caused by infinite recursion during initialization. It occurs when using IntelliJ IDEA Ul 2016.3 and react-native 0.37 or 0.38.

The cause is tracked by IntelliJ WEB-24149, discussed (and dismissed) as a node bug.

At the time of writing the only work-around was to downgrade to react-native 0.36.1 instead of 0.37/0.38.

To downgrade:

1. Verify that package.json doesn’t enforce any newer versions. I had to downgrade react-native, react and react-test-renderer:

   "dependencies": {
    "react": "15.3.1",  
    "react-native": "0.36.1"  
     },
     "devDependencies": {    
    "react-test-renderer": "15.3.1" 
     }
   

2. Clean up the node modules (shouldn’t be necessary but was)

   rm -rf node_modules/ && npm install

3. Re-initialize the project using react-native at the downgraded version

   react-native init <projectname> --version react-native@0.36.1

4. Clean up other caches when starting the packager:

   watchman watch-del-all && npm start -- --reset-cache