[0.87] Fail clearly when a dependency references an autolinking plugin host

[cipolleschi]

Target Branch

0.87

Link to commit or PR to be picked

react/react-native@90a539c

Description

Requesting this pick for the SwiftPM preview shipped in 0.87.

A library can provide its own SwiftPM autolinking plugin, in which case React Native correctly skips generating a target for that library because the plugin owns its native contribution. However, if another library declares that plugin host as a dependency, the current 0.87 behavior fails without explaining the invalid dependency relationship or how to resolve it.

This commit validates dependencies while generating the SwiftPM autolinking package and emits a clear, actionable error when a referenced target is unavailable because it is owned by an autolinking plugin. The change is narrowly scoped to the SwiftPM autolinking generator and includes unit-test coverage (57 added test lines); the upstream PR reports the unit tests passing. Picking it will turn an opaque build failure in the new 0.87 SwiftPM flow into a diagnosable configuration error.

[github-actions]

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[cipolleschi]

Included in for the 0.87.1 release via react/react-native@617a82ff299e. Closing this pick request.

[cipolleschi]

Correction: included in branch 0.87-stable for the 0.87.1 release. The commit link in the previous comment is correct.