diff --git a/packages/@expo/cli/CHANGELOG.md b/packages/@expo/cli/CHANGELOG.md
index 8ce3c44a1d6b0a..ae521274848b57 100644
--- a/packages/@expo/cli/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/packages/@expo/cli/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 
 ### 💡 Others
 
+- Removed prebuild side effect that adding `--dev-client` to the npm start script. ([#23121](https://github.com/expo/expo/pull/23121) by [@kudo](https://github.com/kudo))
+
 ## 0.10.3 — 2023-06-27
 
 ### 🐛 Bug fixes
diff --git a/packages/@expo/cli/e2e/__tests__/prebuild-test.ts b/packages/@expo/cli/e2e/__tests__/prebuild-test.ts
index 5734df4fdedc6c..fe4f15335f8750 100644
--- a/packages/@expo/cli/e2e/__tests__/prebuild-test.ts
+++ b/packages/@expo/cli/e2e/__tests__/prebuild-test.ts
@@ -145,7 +145,6 @@ it(
     expect(pkg.scripts).toStrictEqual({
       android: 'expo run:android',
       ios: 'expo run:ios',
-      start: 'expo start --dev-client',
     });
 
     // If this changes then everything else probably changed as well.
diff --git a/packages/@expo/cli/src/prebuild/updatePackageJson.ts b/packages/@expo/cli/src/prebuild/updatePackageJson.ts
index ed19ca40d87500..f8e39e520da470 100644
--- a/packages/@expo/cli/src/prebuild/updatePackageJson.ts
+++ b/packages/@expo/cli/src/prebuild/updatePackageJson.ts
@@ -256,9 +256,6 @@ function updatePkgScripts({ pkg }: { pkg: PackageJSONConfig }) {
   if (!pkg.scripts) {
     pkg.scripts = {};
   }
-  if (!pkg.scripts.start?.includes('--dev-client')) {
-    pkg.scripts.start = 'expo start --dev-client';
-  }
   if (!pkg.scripts.android?.includes('run')) {
     pkg.scripts.android = 'expo run:android';
   }