Forem: Hulk in Public

I will continue using Devise with Rails 8!

Hulk in Public — Tue, 26 May 2026 04:50:54 +0000

I am developing a boilerplate called SuperRails.

Super Rails | Rails Boilerplate for Solopreneurs

A production-ready Rails boilerplate with Devise, Avo, Stripe, ViewComponent and more. Skip the setup, ship your MVP in days.

super-rails.com

It is a collection of gems and pages that aren't in the Rails standard but are definitely convenient to have. I am currently taking on a challenge to release one product a month on YouTube, including marketing, and I can say without a doubt that I am able to continue this challenge because of SuperRails. Most MVPs can be ready to release in an instant by just adding a few models and controller actions to it.

For the "LazyCafe" I released this month, I simply used SuperRails as a foundation, added a single model called "Track," and enabled it to be operated by the frontend via a JSON API. It is incredibly easy to build an MVP.

Now, I use Devise as the authentication method for SuperRails.
When I asked on Reddit which gem I should adopt for my boilerplate, I was asked why I use Devise instead of the built-in Rails 8 authentication.

Frankly speaking, I have never had any issues using Devise.
However, it seems there is a strong sentiment within the Rails community that Devise is too complex and that I should be using the standard Rails 8 authentication.
I understand that feeling. The philosophy of Rails is to "ride the rails." In other words, as Web developers, we run like trains along the tracks that the genius DHH has built by adhering abnormally to the principle of "Convention over Configuration."
That is the Rails community.

As a Rails engineer—or rather, as a businessman—I respect him from the bottom of my heart.
On the other hand, I didn't really see the merit in using the Rails 8 authentication feature.
Sure, as a framework policy, it is important to provide an authentication method by default to demonstrate that "batteries are included."
However, I see no particular reason to abandon Devise, which I have grown accustomed to using.
I have used Devise in every single Rails project I have participated in so far.

There is a claim that Devise is complex. I don't really understand that.
It is rare that I need to customize authentication features. Moreover, as a small-scale entrepreneur, I don't have time to spend on login methods, which are not the core of my business.
In fact, isn't it more tedious to take the code generated by rails g authentication, tweak it, and try to configure it to fit your own use case? I'd have nothing to laugh about if I customized it strangely and then got hacked.

It also has poor compatibility with existing libraries.
For example, I use a fairly niche library called "any_login." This is a very convenient gem that allows you to switch login users instantly.

igorkasyanchuk / any_login

Easy way to login as any user in system

AnyLogin Gem

Description

Demo available on: https://any-login.herokuapp.com (source code for demo https://github.com/igorkasyanchuk/any_login_test)

Video Demo: https://youtu.be/978DlHvufSY

AnyLogin was created to speed up the development process by allowing developers to quickly log in as any user.

Give it a try; if you like it please share AnyLogin with friends. If you have any suggestions please feel free to contact me.

Requirements

Ruby: >= 3.0, Rails: >= 6.1. Pre-configured to work with Devise, Authlogic, Clearance or Sorcery gems.

For Rails < 4.2.7 please use gem 'any_login', '1.3'.

Installation

Add AnyLogin to your Gemfile:

gem 'any_login'
Execute in console:

bundle install
In application layout (for example app/views/layouts/application.html.erb) add the following to the bottom of the page:

= any_login_here if defined?(AnyLogin)
Open your app and on the bottom left corner you will see semi-transparent user icon. Click on it and now you can select any user to log in…

View on GitHub

Gems like Pundit and Avo also work.

varvet / pundit

Minimal authorization through OO design and pure Ruby classes

Pundit

Pundit provides a set of helpers which guide you in leveraging regular Ruby classes and object oriented design patterns to build a straightforward, robust, and scalable authorization system.

Links:

Sponsored by: Varvet

Installation

Please note that the README on GitHub is accurate with the latest code on GitHub. You are most likely using a released version of Pundit, so please refer to the documentation for the latest released version of Pundit.

bundle add pundit

Include Pundit::Authorization in your application controller:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  include Pundit::Authorization
end

Optionally, you can run the generator, which will set up an application policy with some useful defaults for you:

rails g pundit:install

After generating your application policy, restart the Rails server so that Rails can pick up any classes in the new app/policies/…

View on GitHub

avo-hq / avo

The Essential Toolkit for building Internal Tools and admin panels with Ruby on Rails

Avo - Ruby on Rails Admin Panel Framework

Avo is a very custom Admin Panel Framework, Content Management System, and Internal Tool Builder for Ruby on Rails that saves engineers and teams months of development time.

Get started

⚡️ Install: docs.avohq.io/3.0/installation
✨ Website: avohq.io
📚 Documentation: docs.avohq.io
🗺 Roadmap: GitHub Roadmap
🎸 Demo App: Avodemo
🐤 Twitter: avo_hq
🔧 Issue Tracker: GitHub Issues
🎙 Discussions and Feature Requests: GitHub Discussions

Features

Powered by Hotwire - Rails ❤️ Hotwire
Code driven configuration - Configure your Rails dashboard entirely by writing Ruby code. docs
Resource Management - Create a CRUD interface for Active Record from one command. No more copy-pasting view and controller files around.
Dashboard widgets and metrics - Create metrics, charts, and custom cards amazingly fast. docs
Resource Search - Quickly run a search through one or more resources at once…

View on GitHub

These are implemented on the premise that the current_user defined by Devise exists.
Even the code output by AI assumes that current_user exists. Naturally, since the vast majority of apps in the training data were implemented with Devise.
Someone on Reddit commented like this:

there is one caveat to that: make sure to use "Device" naming convention so using libraries such Pundit, CanCanCan etc is compatible with your code without addition tweaking.

Does that mean something like this?

module ApplicationHelper
  def current_user
    Current.user
  end
end

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to write code like this.

Surprisingly, the Devise community remains active even after the implementation of the Rails 8 standard authentication.
As of the time of writing this article, the last merge was two weeks ago.

heartcombo / devise

Flexible authentication solution for Rails with Warden.

Devise is a flexible authentication solution for Rails based on Warden. It:

Is Rack based;
Is a complete MVC solution based on Rails engines;
Allows you to have multiple models signed in at the same time;
Is based on a modularity concept: use only what you really need.

It's composed of 10 modules:

Database Authenticatable: hashes and stores a password in the database to validate the authenticity of a user while signing in. The authentication can be done both through POST requests or HTTP Basic Authentication.
Omniauthable: adds OmniAuth (https://github.com/omniauth/omniauth) support.
Confirmable: sends emails with confirmation instructions and verifies whether an account is already confirmed during sign in.
Recoverable: resets the user password and sends reset instructions.
Registerable: handles signing up users through a registration process, also allowing them to edit and destroy their account.
Rememberable: manages generating and clearing a token…

View on GitHub

In a world where many gems are abandoned and disappear, this is encouraging.
It lives up to having over 20,000 stars.

For these reasons, I have decided to use Devise for SuperRails and my other projects, even with Rails 8.
Since this decision could easily change depending on the evolution of AI and the trends in the community, I intend to just wait and see for about a year and focus on my business.

As a side note, it’s strange for me to complain, but why is it that the Rails 8 standard authentication has a login page but no sign-up page?

Don't fall for the Claude Mythos hype

Hulk in Public — Sun, 24 May 2026 23:39:42 +0000

It’s just Anthropic’s marketing.

Claude Mythos is making waves. Initially, the preview was only made available to a very select few Big Tech companies, such as Google and Apple. It seems Anthropic decided it would be too dangerous to release it to the public all at once. The access was gradually expanded, and recently, news broke in my country, Japan, that a major megabank had been granted access. Politicians are also treating it as a risk, and it feels like discussions about how to use AI safely have been increasing lately.

Even among the general public, especially on X, there are voices expecting that Claude Mythos will change the world or that it might achieve AGI. However, they are missing a crucial perspective: "This includes Anthropic’s marketing."

When AI companies release a model, they often use the tactic of developing it themselves and then declaring, "It's too dangerous," before rolling it out in stages. This was exactly the case with GPT-3.5 and GPT-5. I was particularly worried that GPT-5 would fundamentally upend the way the world works, and I remember staying up until 3:00 AM (Japan time) watching OpenAI’s announcement with heavy eyes.

My reaction after watching it? "What is this? It’s not much different from what we already have." My initial impression was wrong. When I actually tried it, the GPT-5 of that time actually felt less capable overall than GPT-4o.

Before GPT-5 was released to the world, it was already being used internally at OpenAI. It was said that GPT-5 was handling most of the internal operations, and that "once this is released, it’s going to be amazing!"

Certainly, there are impressive models in the GPT-5 series. I currently use version 5.5 for AI agents. It is far more efficient than previous models, but it didn't result in a situation that fundamentally overturned the structure of society. Today, I am still here writing code, writing tests, and submitting pull requests.

Getting back to the topic of Mythos—this time it’s about Claude, or rather, Anthropic. Until now, Anthropic often released features and new models smoothly without resorting to this kind of hype. But this time, it seems they’ve resorted to hype-based marketing. "We found a vulnerability that no human has found in 27 years!" Seriously? Please tell us how significant the impact of this vulnerability actually was.

In Japan, it is said that the systems connecting most financial institutions' networks are still written in COBOL. It would be unnatural if they didn’t have vulnerabilities. (I do welcome it if this actually helps those systems.)

Anthropic is preparing for an IPO. Their valuation changes in an instant based on their hype. There is no reason for us, as general developers or business people, to be swayed by Anthropic’s marketing.

Going slightly off-topic, I’m annoyed by Anthropic’s "entitled" business practices. For example, not allowing users to use their regular subscription plans with third-party tools like OpenCode. Or how they took Bun—a tool developed by a subsidiary—and completely changed the language via something close to vibe-coding without a single review in less than a week.

Thanks to AI, non-engineers have unfortunately become able to use Git

Hulk in Public — Sun, 24 May 2026 02:46:07 +0000

I heard this from my girlfriend yesterday.

At her workplace, a non-engineer has been using Claude Code to edit files directly on GitHub. Her office is in web production, and it seems the business-side staff are using Claude Code to make quick tweaks to static files.

Apparently, the AI accidentally pushed changes without them realizing it, causing some issues. When they couldn't even read the terminal to investigate, they ended up asking my girlfriend to look into it. I’m stunned that someone doesn't even know how to check a terminal for Claude Code's operation history, but I’m even more shocked that the company decided to let people of that skill level use Claude Code via the CLI.

Naturally, they have no knowledge of Git. They might be experts in marketing, sales, or user support, but they aren't engineers. Unless they take the time to learn, they have no way of knowing the basics of Git. They don't understand concepts like merging, pull requests, commits, conflicts, squashing, or branching.

Listen, do not let people who don't know Git touch Git. This isn't discrimination. No matter how convenient AI becomes, nothing will ever go well if you don't study; in fact, nothing will go well at all.

Learning Git takes a week, tops. You don't even need a full week—a single day is enough. Just put in the effort to consciously absorb knowledge. That knowledge will absolutely pay off with compound interest. Without it, that lack of knowledge becomes a literal liability, costing you time and money in the form of things like damages and compensation.

Think of AI as a kitchen knife. Knives are useful—you can use them to cut meat, fillet fish, or kill someone. I’m not denying the convenience of AI; if anything, non-engineers should be using it proactively since they already have so much to learn about IT.

But when you first held a knife, didn't you learn how to use it from your parents or a teacher at school? Or did you at least read a book or watch a video to understand it before picking it up? Don’t disregard the need for input. In other words, don't try to use AI while skipping the process of actually understanding what you're doing.

If you run around outside waving a knife, you’ll end up in prison. What’s terrifying is that, at this stage, we are seeing idiots who misunderstand AI as a sign that engineers’ technical value is dropping or that they no longer need to learn engineering.

The products they openly operate are, to me, the perfect targets for attack. If it weren't for laws like Japan's Act on Prohibition of Unauthorized Computer Access, I might be stealing customer data from them, rewriting their databases, or encrypting their data and demanding a ransom. And there are plenty of people out there with even less ethics than I have.

AI is not an omniscient, omnipotent god. It is a knife—a cyborg extension that expands your abilities in both positive and negative directions.

Never Use Service Classes in Rails

Hulk in Public — Thu, 21 May 2026 03:03:56 +0000

Service classes are one of the most representative anti-patterns in Rails.
That is because they deviate from Rails' MVC principles.

You have probably heard of the Single Responsibility Principle.
In MVC, each component has its own role:

Model: storing, managing, processing, and relating data
View: display, templates, and user interface
Controller: handling HTTP requests

So, if we introduce a service class, what is its responsibility?
I do not know.

The name "service" creates the illusion that you can write some impressive-sounding business logic there.
However, the name "service" has no meaning or definition.
Why are so many people strict about meaningless variable names like tmp or x, yet willing to accept a meaningless class called a "service class"?

In my more than five years of experience with Ruby on Rails, service classes had unfortunately already been created in several projects.
In many of those cases, complex data-processing logic had been written in controllers, and service classes were used simply to clean up fat controllers.

That premise is wrong.
If you write business logic in models—especially logic related to retrieving and processing data—and keep controllers focused solely on calling that logic, controllers will never become complex.

"Do you accept fat models?"
Yes, of course.
In real companies, "business logic" is, in other words, a discussion about "how to handle data," which is precisely the role of the model.
When business requirements are large, it is inevitable that models become complex and grow in size.

Implementing readable code within models is where we engineers show our skill.
There is never any place for service classes.

"What should you do if a model grows so large that a single file exceeds 1,000 lines?"
Please refer to the OSS code published by DHH and 37signals.
Even when we talk about fat models, that does not mean you should cram all logic into a single class.

basecamp / once-campfire

Super simple group chat, without a subscription

Campfire

Campfire is a web-based chat application. It supports many of the features you'd expect, including:

Multiple rooms, with access controls
Direct messages
File attachments with previews
Search
Notifications (via Web Push)
@mentions
API, with support for bot integrations

Deploying with Docker

Campfire's Docker image contains everything needed for a fully-functional single-machine deployment. This includes the web app, background jobs, caching, file serving, and SSL.

To persist storage of the database and file attachments, map a volume to /rails/storage.

To configure additional features, you can set the following environment variables:

SSL_DOMAIN - enable automatic SSL via Let's Encrypt for the given domain name
DISABLE_SSL - alternatively, set DISABLE_SSL to serve over plain HTTP
VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY/VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY - set these to a valid keypair to allow sending Web Push notifications. You can generate a new keypair by running /script/admin/create-vapid-key
SENTRY_DSN - to enable error reporting to sentry in production, supply…

View on GitHub

For example, once-campfire defines the following files related to the User model:

models/user.rb
models/user/avatar.rb
models/user/bannable.rb
models/user/bot.rb
models/user/mentionalbe.rb
models/user/role.rb
models/user/transferable.rb

The first file, models/user.rb, is the one you are familiar with—the file created by rails g model User.
The others are modules that includes extend ActiveSupport::Concern. In other words, they are simply concerns.

Even if something is not shared with other models, it should be extracted into a concern and split out.
That way, the main models/user.rb can remain simple.

By the way, who was it that started advocating for service classes in the first place?
DHH was loudly criticizing service classes, wasn't he?

When I ask AI for advice on Rails refactoring, it forcibly suggests services even though I never asked for them.

It is extremely irritating.
It makes me realize that the expectation that AI will replace real engineers is nothing more than nonsense.

GPT image 2.0 Is the Reason I Can Run My Business

Hulk in Public — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:02:32 +0000

openai.com

It has been one month since gpt-image-2.0 was released.

For me, it was even more shocking than the arrival of gpt-3.5 or claude code.
It is, quite literally, a revolution.

Design has always been genuinely painful for me.
However, since I chose the path of being a solopreneur, I cannot run away from design.

YouTube thumbnails
UI/UX for websites and apps
Brochures that explain what my business does
Logos for companies and services
Article thumbnails

Until now, I had been doing my best using Canva templates, but I was shocked when my girlfriend told me, “You have absolutely no sense of design. A chimpanzee would do better.”

Over the past month, I have experienced my business moving forward at a speed I had never seen before thanks to gpt-image-2.
Because of it, I have been able to continue building my business without outsourcing design work to a designer—at least for now.
In the future, I may ask someone with design expertise for consulting in order to get feedback, but I am confident that I can now create work that is definitely better than a chimpanzee’s.

Here are some of the works created with gpt-image-2 that I used in my business over the past month.

Super Rails | Rails Boilerplate for Solopreneurs

A production-ready Rails boilerplate with Devise, Avo, Stripe, ViewComponent and more. Skip the setup, ship your MVP in days.

super-rails.com

LazyMusic | 音楽をもっと気軽に

LazyMusicは、音楽をもっと気軽に楽しむためのミュージックコミュニティです。

lazymusic.cc

Can You Launch a New Business in Just One Month with Rails and AI?

Hulk in Public — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:27:05 +0000

The Solopreneur Lifestyle

I'm Haruhisa Maniwa (Hulk), CEO of Laicos Inc.
I live what people call the solopreneur lifestyle.

Last month, this article I wrote on Zenn went viral in a weird way.

AI時代にわざわざRuby on Railsを使う理由

zenn.dev

【コメント返信】AI時代にわざわざRuby on Railsを使う理由

ハルクさんのスクラップ

zenn.dev

I've made my living almost entirely with Rails, so I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Rails lover.
If someone asks me, "Who do you respect the most?" I immediately answer, "DHH."

I truly believe, from the bottom of my heart, that Rails' simplicity and track record are still weapons in the AI era. Unfortunately, it's also true that many people disagree.
So when I praise Rails, it catches fire.

That's right. This month, we're setting things on fire again.

This time, my company actually developed and is operating two products with Rails, so I'd like to explain how I launched them.

I hope this will be useful for anyone wondering, "What kind of business do indie developers actually run?"

Rails Is Not Dead

Over the past five years since I entered the programming world, the industry has been tossed around by trends like NoSQL, BaaS, GraphQL, and the MEAN stack.
Those technologies have, in the true sense, "died out."

Meanwhile, Rails, despite everyone saying it would disappear, has barely changed for 20 years.

If a Rails engineer from 20 years ago time-traveled to 2026 and was assigned a Rails 8 task, they would probably spend about three days in despair and then reluctantly start writing code.

There is no other web framework with this level of consistency.

The Lifespan of a Framework Is the Lifespan of a Business

For me, someone who wants to build businesses that survive long term, the lifespan of a framework directly means the lifespan of the business.

I'm challenging myself to "release one product per month."

This directly imitates the Build in Public approach practiced by the original indie developer, Pieter Levels.

However, there is one difference: AI.

As you all know, AI agents have overturned the very concept of coding.
And not just coding. Marketing, design, sales—everything.

However, even when many indie developers use AI to release products, they often fail to generate any meaningful revenue afterward.
On top of that, they become unable to untangle the spaghetti code produced by vibe coding, and six months later, they quietly shut everything down where nobody is watching.

I've had similar experiences myself.

As a reflection on that, I decided to impose the following constraints on myself when releasing products from now on:

Implement only the absolute minimum necessary features
Do not spend more time on development than on marketing (promotion and announcements)
Do not care about technology trends
Do not cling to a single product

"If I want to spin the flywheel of rapid market feedback and build a business that survives the turbulent AI era, isn't Rails the best fit?"

That is my hypothesis. I want to prove it.

By the way, this month is the second month and the second product in this challenge.

The Idea I Came Up With

The keyword is "a cafe inside the terminal."

When I work remotely, I often listen to music.

Recently, however, I found myself always streaming the same artists and the same YouTube channels, and my brain started rejecting it.

There was no freshness at all, and I couldn't concentrate!

I thought, "If my home felt like a stylish cafe, I could concentrate more."

Then, while using lazygit and lazydocker, an idea suddenly occurred to me.

Why not make a cafe in the terminal?

jesseduffield / lazygit

simple terminal UI for git commands

^{Special thanks to:}

Warp, the intelligent terminal
Available for macOS and Linux

^{Visit warp.dev to learn more.}

Tuple, the premier screen sharing app for developers on macOS and Windows.

I (Jesse) co-founded Subble to save your company time and money by finding unused and over-provisioned SaaS licences. Check it out!

A simple terminal UI for git commands

Elevator Pitch

Rant time: You've heard it before, git is powerful, but what good is that power when everything is so damn hard to do? Interactive rebasing requires you to edit a goddamn TODO file in your editor? Are you kidding me? To stage part of a file you need to use a command line program to…

View on GitHub

jesseduffield / lazydocker

The lazier way to manage everything docker

^{Special thanks to:}

Warp, the intelligent terminal
Available for MacOS and Linux

^{Visit warp.dev to learn more.}

Tuple, the premier screen sharing app for developers on macOS and Windows.

Click here to learn more

A simple terminal UI for both docker and docker-compose, written in Go with the gocui library.

Demo

Elevator Pitch

Minor rant incoming: Something's not working? Maybe a service is down. docker-compose ps. Yep, it's that microservice that's still buggy. No issue, I'll just restart it: docker-compose restart. Okay now let's try again. Oh wait the issue is still there. Hmm. docker-compose ps. Right so the service must have just stopped immediately after starting. I probably would have known…

View on GitHub

I asked Gemini, "I want to create a cafe-like space in the terminal and play cafe-inspired music endlessly. Is that possible?" It replied, "Totally possible."

That was the moment my next project was decided.

I also had Gemini make the mockup.

The project name is LazyCafe!

By the way, some of you may be thinking, "Couldn't you just search for cafe music on YouTube and play that?"

No.

YouTube has too much noise: weird animations, related videos, and so on.
The same goes for other music streaming apps.

It has to be completed entirely inside the terminal, or it has no meaning.
I think all you Vimmers understand this feeling. Am I wrong? You there, Vimmer!

Tools Used

My selection criterion was whether the tool could help build a business that survives 10 years from now.
I excluded all pointless trends.

My company has only one person, and of course we don't yet have enough revenue to hire outsourced engineers.

On top of that, I also do contract development as a sole proprietor, so I only have about three days a week to work on LazyCafe.

Therefore, in order to complete and release the product within one month while simultaneously handling marketing, I had to strictly follow these three rules:

Automate development work with programs and AI as much as possible
Add absolutely no unnecessary features
- (Looking back, I feel like the chat feature may not have been necessary.)
Never do the same task twice

AI Tools

Gemini
ChatGPT (Pro plan)
GitHub Copilot
Pi, Opencode

Most Development Is Done with GitHub Copilot

When I assign tasks to GitHub Copilot as if I were assigning issues to a subordinate, it creates pull requests with far better results than I expected.

We can review each other on PRs and discuss implementation details.

It feels like working with a remote employee.

For concrete instructions like "do this in that file," I leave everything to GitHub Copilot.
After carefully reviewing it, I release it.

Business Logic Is Implemented with Pi and Opencode

Sometimes there are areas I absolutely cannot entrust to AI, such as business-specific logic or parts related to payments and authentication that could cause customer damage. I cannot simply dump those onto GitHub Copilot, so I implement them myself.

Since I use Neovim as my main editor, I need AI agents that work well with the CLI.

That's why I mainly use Opencode and Pi.
You can think of them as open-source versions of Claude Code CLI.

opencode.ai

Pi Coding Agent

A terminal-based coding agent

pi.dev

I learned about Pi from a tweet by DHH. For now, I like it because it seems easier to use than Opencode.

// Detect dark theme var iframe = document.getElementById('tweet-2052969528137560550-452'); if (document.body.className.includes('dark-theme')) { iframe.src = "https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=2052969528137560550&theme=dark" }

For the model, I use gpt-5.5 through the premium requests bundled with GitHub Copilot and my ChatGPT subscription.

ChatGPT's Chat Feels Childish

For brainstorming and research via chat, I use Gemini.
ChatGPT lies normally, uses too many bullet points, and is hard to read.
It's basically a yes-man, and it somehow feels like I'm being treated like a child, which irritates me.

Previously, I asked ChatGPT how much tax-saving effect there would be from using both a micro-corporation and sole proprietorship.
It calculated only the taxes on the micro-corporation side with low executive compensation and replied, "It's cheaper than being a sole proprietor."
I flipped out because, if you're comparing them, you obviously have to look at the taxes and social insurance premiums on the sole proprietor side too.

My basic strategy is to use APIs at fixed rates through external tools.

ChatGPT's `image-2.0` Is Insane

Image2 is seriously powerful.
For someone like me, whose girlfriend rated my design sense as "on the level of a chimpanzee," it is more than enough.

It can output app mockups and YouTube thumbnails at a level I'm satisfied with in one shot.

The LazyCafe logo.
It put the terminal ">_" on the cup and combined "zzz" with both laziness and coffee steam. Amazing.

A YouTube video thumbnail for English-speaking users.
I uploaded an image I took myself to GPT and said, "Make a thumbnail with this."
The surrounding icons feel AI-ish, but the typography and photo processing are much higher quality than what I could do myself.

Until now, at our company, the only employee besides me was GitHub Copilot, but GPT Image2 has now been promoted to employee status as well.

Backend

Using a Boilerplate

In order to release reliably within limited time, I had actually developed a boilerplate as my first project last month.

Super Rails | Rails Boilerplate for Solopreneurs

A production-ready Rails boilerplate with Devise, Avo, Stripe, ViewComponent and more. Skip the setup, ship your MVP in days.

super-rails.com

I have run rails new more than 500 times so far.

Based on that experience, I created a boilerplate preloaded with the libraries and features I know I absolutely need, and I also sold it.

For example: authentication, social login, authorization, notifications, admin screens, user profile pages, and user information editing.
These are not included in Rails by default, but I knew from my own cases that I would definitely need them, so I added them last month.

GitHub repositories have a feature that lets you register them as a "Template repository."
When you turn this on, you can smoothly rocket-start the next project from the template.

Currently, "SuperRails" has 158 commits.
That means if I use this boilerplate going forward, I can expect to save that much time.

Incidentally, the sales site for the boilerplate, super-rails.com itself, was also developed using the SuperRails boilerplate.

Rails Is Evolving Toward Less Is More

Rails has evolved with each version toward being "simpler and easier to understand."

Thanks to Hotwire, the frontend is also completed within the Rails codebase. There is no need to deliberately use modern JS.

hotwired.dev

Kamal 2 is a Docker deployment tool included by default in Rails.
Once you have contracted a VPS and can connect via SSH, you can publish your product to the entire world just by running kamal/setup.

Kamal — Deploy web apps anywhere

From bare metal to cloud VMs using Docker, deploy web apps anywhere with zero downtime.

kamal-deploy.org

For VPS, I often use Hetzner, a European rental server service.
It is also introduced in the Rails Guides.

hetzner.com

Rails をはじめよう - Railsガイド

Railsのインストール方法と最初のRailsアプリケーションの作成に必要なすべてを解説します。

railsguides.jp

Since Rails 8, SQLite has become production-ready, so there is no need to prepare a separate DB server.
For files, we use the VPS's local storage, so there is no need to prepare an external file storage service like S3 either.

Redis for jobs has also become unnecessary thanks to the Solid stack.

The architecture becomes simple, and above all, infrastructure costs are low because external dependencies are reduced!!!
DHH is truly a god.

I learned about ffmpeg for the first time this time, but apparently it can be used for music playback.

Frontend

Ink / React

Ink is a React framework for implementing CLIs.

vadimdemedes / ink

🌈 React for interactive command-line apps

React for CLIs. Build and test your CLI output using components.

Ink provides the same component-based UI building experience that React offers in the browser, but for command-line apps It uses Yoga to build Flexbox layouts in the terminal, so most CSS-like properties are available in Ink as well If you are already familiar with React, you already know Ink.

Since Ink is a React renderer, all features of React are supported Head over to the React website for documentation on how to use it. Only Ink's methods are documented in this readme.

Fully AI-generated pull requests are not accepted. You can use AI, but should be verified and cleaned up by a human. Only Opus 4.6+ (high-effort) and Codex 5.4+ (extra high) are accepted models. Preferably created with Opus and verified by Codex.

^{My open source work is supported by the community ❤️}

Install

npm install ink react

Note

…

View on GitHub

Code Example

import {render, Text} from 'ink';

const Example = () => (
    <>
        <Text color="green">I am green</Text>
        <Text color="black" backgroundColor="white">
            I am black on white
        </Text>
        <Text color="#ffffff">I am white</Text>
        <Text bold>I am bold</Text>
        <Text italic>I am italic</Text>
        <Text underline>I am underline</Text>
        <Text strikethrough>I am strikethrough</Text>
        <Text inverse>I am inversed</Text>
    </>
);

render(<Example />);

It feels like bringing a concept similar to React Native to CLI tools—does that make sense?

Rust and Go Were Also Options, But...

When considering maintainability and safety, including psychological safety, Rust and Go were also possible options, but I passed on them.

I have written Rust before, but I cannot implement things as easily as I can with React (my personal issue)
I don't know Go

From that perspective, I chose React because I had used it on the web before and prioritized "being able to release."

How I Deal with Vibe Coding

I think blindly throwing coding tasks at AI without looking at the code is evil, because there are security risks and so on.

For the Rails backend, I release only after thoroughly testing and carefully reviewing it.
So I thought it wouldn't be a major problem even if I cut corners on the frontend (React), and I ended up delegating it to AI in a way very close to vibe coding. Sorry.

It will probably continue to crash or behave unexpectedly in the future (in fact, it already sometimes happens in my environment, which is scary), but I don't have time to refactor, so I'll just keep whack-a-mole fixing issues as they come up.
I also have to catch up on Ink-specific knowledge, so it's tough...

Takuya, the developer of Inkdrop, also says not to refactor until users gather.

Things built for the shortest possible release and expanded with speed as the priority inevitably become redundant or wasteful in many places. But once PMF is achieved and you know it works as a business, then you can start refactoring and trimming things down. I do not recommend spending a long time refactoring before PMF. The fundamental problem is not there.

個人開発を7年以上続けて分かった技術選択のコツ

blog.craftz.dog

How the Application Works

Basically, the structure is:

Web (authentication, payments, token issuance, admin screens, etc.): Rails
CLI: Ink/React

Music is stored as MP3 files inside Rails' Active Storage, saved locally on the server deployed with Kamal, and URLs are returned as JSON.

// Example of returning a music list as JSON.
// There is nothing particularly complex; React/Ink simply downloads
// MP3s based on file URLs and caches them.
{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "title": "Path of Sunlit Leaves",
      "duration": 156.72,
      "created_at": "2026-05-08T06:49:35.281Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-05-13T07:50:37.370Z",
      "file_url": "https://lazymusic.cc/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MTcsInB1ciI6ImJsb2JfaWQifX0=--8d03037bec4f54b548c3263458f4fa4e77ff9d0b/Morning%20Loop.mp3"
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "title": "Birds at the Café Terrace",
      "duration": 153.72,
      "created_at": "2026-05-08T06:50:31.461Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-05-13T07:50:37.492Z",
      "file_url": "https://lazymusic.cc/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MiwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--a471fa6a93a60ae2ce14756d61d9d68fc57f3ef1/Morning%20Loop%20(1).mp3"
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "title": "Through the Misty Forest",
      "duration": 104.904,
      "created_at": "2026-05-08T06:52:08.453Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-05-13T07:50:37.625Z",
      "file_url": "https://lazymusic.cc/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MywicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--1f5e201c9ea64933443c8560920f15461bb80a71/Forest%20Morning.mp3"
    }
  ],
  "pagination": {
    "count": 53,
    "page": 1,
    "limit": 3,
    "pages": 18,
    "next": 2,
    "prev": null
  }
}

The plan is to delete the entire cache when the command exits.

The admin screens and payment screens on the web are completely Rails.
I implemented them extremely quickly.

The admin screen uses a gem called Avo.
When the Track model was generated, it created the admin functionality, so the time newly spent building the admin screen was 0 seconds.

As a little bonus, LazyCafe includes a chat space.
If there are other LazyCafe users, you can interact with them in real time.

This real-time communication is implemented with Rails' Action Cable using socket communication.
There is absolutely nothing special about the implementation.

Don't Do Wasteful Things

I don't do wasteful things.

This is a CLI tool, so obsessing over the landing page is meaningless.
Therefore, I will release the first version with this design that AI casually implemented.

This is embarrassing.
But there aren't enough people yet for me to be embarrassed.

Finished Version

Somehow, I managed to get it into shape in half a month.

I've also been using it while working, and I've grown quite attached to it.
This is already the phase where it should be released.

How I Collected the Music

To create a cafe-like atmosphere, I needed to prepare a lot of music.
The kind of music I especially like is a genre called Lofi Hip-Hop, so I needed to collect a lot of it.

Naturally, I cannot compose music, so I had to get it from somewhere.

I considered the following options:

Public-domain music
Free asset sites like Pixabay
Lyria3 (Gemini's music generation model)
SunoAI

Public-Domain Music

I thought, "If I collect and line up music whose copyright has expired or been waived, it should take shape," but that was the beginning of hell.
Lofi Hip-Hop seems to be a genre that only recently became popular, and I just couldn't find anything.

When I searched, all I found were obscure classical pieces and low-quality jazz.
So I gave up on public-domain music right there.

Free Asset Sites Like Pixabay

pixabay.com

I thought free asset sites would be fine because they are permissive about copyright.
Indeed, they say commercial use is allowed, and if used only as a minor part, it should be fine even without credit.

However, the phrase "minor part" bothered me.

pixabay.com

You cannot sell or distribute Content (either in digital or physical form) on a Standalone basis. Standalone means where no creative effort has been applied to the Content and it remains in substantially the same form as it exists on our website.

"Standalone basis"?

Hmm. Since the music would simply play in the user's terminal, would that be considered "standalone," or would the CLI functionality be seen as added value?

When I consulted AI, Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini all said it was not allowed and that I should stop.
(I tried changing the prompt in various ways, including asking, "Of course it's okay, right?" but it still said no. ~~What an annoying thing with more ethics than humans.~~)

I won't explain the reasons in detail, but apparently the act of "redistribution" itself is a copyright problem, even if credit is given.

Moreover, in my case, I would not be streaming; I would be downloading the files and storing the music heavily on my Rails server, which would apparently be judged as "possessing the music without permission."

Another reason may be that it competes with Pixabay's business model of "freely borrowing free assets."

Honestly, I don't think anyone would notice even if I did it, but since this is a business where I receive money from customers, I must respect rules and manners as much as possible.

When I looked at other free asset sites that allow commercial use, they were all in a similar situation.
This was a problem.

Lyria3

I gave up and decided to try generating music with AI.
Although AI-generated music does not become completely owned by me, I can publish it as mine within the scope of "ownership rights."
There should be no problem with presenting music I made through a CLI tool.

I interpreted it as a problem to claim that music created by AI was "created by myself without using AI."
I really don't know about this area, so if anyone knowledgeable is reading this, please comment.

So I tried using Lyria3, released by Google, to generate music.

Lyria — Gemini AI 音楽＆歌ジェネレーター

どんな瞬間にもぴったりのカスタムサウンドトラックを作成Lyria 3 は、テキストや写真をボーカルと歌詞付きの音声トラックに変換します。

gemini.google

But the quality was... underwhelming.
It still had that unmistakable AI feeling. On top of that, it only supported generation up to three minutes.
If the songs change too frequently, users cannot concentrate.

Rejected.

SunoAI

The final landing point was SunoAI.

Suno | AI Music Generator

Create stunning original music for free in seconds using our AI generator. Make your own masterpieces, share with friends, and discover music from artists worldwide.

suno.com

As expected from such a famous service, the quality is outstanding.

However, while I had heard that the latest model, v5.5, could generate music up to eight minutes long, it mostly generated songs shorter than two minutes.

If the music changes too frequently, concentration breaks.

Hey, how can something that only generates music just over one minute long claim it can "generate up to eight minutes"?

No matter how I changed the prompts, it didn't work, so I gave up, generated a large amount of music, and uploaded only decent tracks longer than two and a half minutes to LazyCafe.

Of course, if you listen carefully, there are strange AI-generated artifacts, but I decided to embrace that as part of the flavor.

So I generated over 300 songs through sheer effort (all manually...), and selected 50 carefully chosen tracks for LazyCafe.
I am proud to say it has become a pretty good playlist.

SunoAI itself is a wonderful service!
I often use it for my YouTube channel too, so I will keep using it.

To freely use music generated by SunoAI, you need to be a paid user at the time of generation. Please check SunoAI's latest information for details.

Speeding Through the "Just Release It" Phase

In any case, you cannot get results unless you release.
The reason I am challenging myself, like Pieter Levels, to "release a product in one month" is that most products decay without ever achieving PMF.
However, if the success rate of making a living through indie development is 10%, then releasing 10 products means one will surely hit.
That's why I have to keep swinging the bat until I connect.

In an era where most people in the world simply ignore AI by saying, "AI? It chats with you? That's cool," I want to leave my mark on society in the field of product development.

Costs Incurred

I summarized the costs related to developing LazyCafe from the beginning of May to the 15th.

Item	Amount	Note
ChatGPT Pro plan	$0	The first month is free thanks to a trial of ¥3,000. I plan to start paying next month.
GitHub Copilot	$28.65	Pay-as-you-go. Caused by using too many Premium Requests. Since I found out that the `ChatGPT Pro` subscription can be used with `Pi`, this should decrease next month. GitHub Actions usage time also accounts for a fair portion of the charges, but assigning issues is convenient, so I accept it as the cost of convenience.
Domain	$8.80	Purchased via `Cloudflare Register`. This is probably the cheapest.
Hetzner	$9.49/month	Rental server fee. Since it's postpaid, I haven't paid yet. LazyCafe's server is located in Falkenstein, Germany, prioritizing low cost. Even so, it reaches me in Osaka without stress.

Even with a generous estimate, I expect it will not exceed 10,000 yen by the end of the month.
That said, AI-related tools are also heavily used in other service development and contract development for my sole proprietorship, so if limited to LazyCafe, it should be even cheaper.

It doesn't even compare to about a year ago when I was subscribed to the Claude Max plan ($200/mo)...
The price destruction caused by technological progress is terrifying.

Incidentally, last month's project, SuperRails, somehow got a VPS contract at the bargain price of $4.99/mo, so its running cost is practically nothing.
Thanks to Kamal, I could eliminate the DB server, which is usually the most expensive part of infrastructure, and keep costs very low.
Redis has also become unnecessary thanks to Rails 8's default features, so that cost is gone too.

Seriously, all hail DHH 🙏

Marketing Strategy for Awareness

Code that nobody uses is, in other words, garbage.
You must not make excuses like, "I made it as a hobby, so it's fine if it doesn't sell."

LazyCafe's beta has reached a level where it can be used for now, so although it is only about 30% complete, I want to release it to get feedback and dedicate the remaining half of the month entirely to marketing.

Installation is simple:

$ npm i -g lazycafe@latest
$ lazycafe

That's it.

I want to provide users with the excitement of transforming their terminal into a cafe with just these commands.

People doing indie development have probably begun to realize this: marketing is more than 100 times harder than development.
So I will first expose it to the world, improve it based on faint feedback, then get more feedback, and repeat that process.

The first version of the credit card payment platform Stripe was very rough, and Mailchimp v1.0 was also extremely simple. That's fine. The early version of Inkdrop was a note app, but it didn't even have a proper settings screen. Because I wanted to release quickly, I postponed payment implementation and posted on Hacker News as a closed beta to recruit testers and see the reaction.

個人開発を7年以上続けて分かった技術選択のコツ

blog.craftz.dog

I will keep swinging the bat.

Conclusion: Was It Good to Use Rails?

The topic drifted a bit, so I want to close with Rails.

A few years ago, DHH named Rails "The One Person Framework."

The One Person Framework

world.hey.com

It is exactly the right framework for me, developing alone (+ two AIs).

This time, I shared how I am launching a new business using Rails.

However, as you probably noticed, most of the content was about business.

How to release quickly and get feedback
How to operate cheaply
How to prepare music within the rules
How to avoid wasteful work
How to automate routine work or delegate it to AI

The fact that I can make these kinds of "upstream" decisions one after another without having to sort out countless small development concerns is, I think, a perfect embodiment of the benefits of Rails.

Part of it is because I am used to Rails, but more than that, the major advantages of using Rails are:

Because of "convention over configuration," both AI and humans can more easily follow best practices
The core structure has not changed for over 20 years
Thanks to a community with strong opinions, you can rarely go wrong by using well-known gems
It continues to evolve in a simpler direction
Its creator himself describes it as "The One Person Framework" for the AI era

I think it would be impossible to move this smoothly with other frameworks.
Things like whether to cache this or that, whether something belongs on the server or client, what to do about the ORM, or needing to add your own test library because one is not included.
I don't want such trivial things getting in the way of my business.

I truly love Rails.

I plan to publish an update soon on the progress of LazyCafe during the remaining half month.

Everyone, let's build startups with Rails!

I’ve Given Up on Bun.

Hulk in Public — Mon, 18 May 2026 03:10:29 +0000

Bun’s implementation language has been migrated from Zig to Rust.

I have no intention of criticizing either Zig or Rust. I think both are excellent languages.
What I want to criticize is Bun’s development process.

Rewrite Bun in Rust #30412

Jarred-Sumner posted on May 08, 2026

Blog post with details coming soon.

It passes Bun's pre-existing test suite on all platforms (and fixes several memory leaks and flaky tests), the binary size shrinks by 3 MB - 8 MB, the benchmarks are between neutral and faster - and most importantly, we now have compiler-assisted tools for catching & preventing memory bugs, which have costed the team an enormous amount of development & debugging time over the years.

The codebase is otherwise largely the same. The same architecture, the same data structures. Bun still uses few 3rd party libraries. No async rust.

To try this, run:

bun upgrade --canary

Please do file issues if you run into any. If this thread gets crazy I will lock it.

Note:

Still some optimization work to do before this lands in non-canary version.
Still some cleanup work to do (which will come in a series of follow-up PRs)

View on GitHub

I have never seen a diff this large before.
What is even more surprising is that, using Claude Code, they reportedly went from implementation to review and merge in less than a week.

Anthropic, which owns Bun’s developer Oven, will likely use this “success story” to further market Claude models and tools.

Even if the migration to Rust has solved the memory leak issues, and even if AI implemented excellent code at incredible speed, I am dismayed by a development process that can release code almost instantly without much review.

To be clear, I am not claiming that AI-generated code is evil. AI can produce useful code, and I also rely on vibe coding in areas where the security risk is low.

But I still review the generated code again and again before I trust it.

My criticism is directed at the act of releasing code without taking full responsibility for it — that is, shipping a massive change without carefully reading and understanding every part of the diff.

Given the sheer size of this change, I do not believe it was physically possible for the Bun development team to thoroughly review all of it in less than a week. That, not the use of AI itself, is what I find unacceptable.

Some people say, “This is the first step in a gradual experiment. It will get better from here, and the Rust code will become more refined as unsafe code is eliminated.”
Don’t be ridiculous. My products—SuperRails and LazyCafe —use Bun. Are my products Anthropic’s sandbox?

In the near future, I plan to migrate SuperRails from Bun to a pnpm-based esbuild setup. I will consxider similar changes for other products, including LazyCafe.

Anthropic and the Bun development team are so focused on short-term problems—how to go public as quickly as possible, and how to resolve memory leak issues as quickly as possible—that they lack the perspective of keeping these tools and products in society for the long term.

This way of doing things does not align with my development philosophy: quietly running businesses that can survive for decades.

Super Rails | Rails Boilerplate for Solopreneurs

A production-ready Rails boilerplate with Devise, Avo, Stripe, ViewComponent and more. Skip the setup, ship your MVP in days.

super-rails.com

Why I Still Choose Ruby on Rails in the Age of AI

Hulk in Public — Sun, 17 May 2026 12:11:07 +0000

Hello, I’m Haruku, a freelance developer.
After recently starting my own company, I’ve found myself thinking more about what kind of web framework fits the age of AI.

I entered the world of computer science through Ruby, and since then I’ve launched side projects using popular technologies such as TypeScript (Next.js, Nuxt.js), Go, and Rust.
But in the end, I realized that Ruby and Ruby on Rails fit my use case best.

And that judgment has not changed even in 2026, when AI coding has become far more advanced.

In this article, I’d like to explain why I decided to keep using Ruby in the age of AI.

For context, I plan to use Rails for every business I start through my company going forward. Please read this as one perspective from someone who is, in a sense, a “Rails believer.”

Why I Use Rails

A Strongly Opinionated Community

Many of you have probably heard the term CoC. Yes, “Convention over Configuration.”
When starting a new Rails project, the framework forces many decisions that developers would otherwise have to make from scratch. Developers simply follow those conventions.
Developers who use Rails always code with this concept of CoC in mind.

For example, if you want to create a new model tied to a database, you only need to type:

rails new model Post title:string body:text

in your terminal, and Rails will automatically create the table, the model layer, and the related tests.

When I first learned programming and touched Rails, I wasn’t particularly impressed by this.
But when I later tried Next.js and Nuxt.js, I was shocked to realize that this was not the norm.

In many other frameworks, even the ORM for connecting to the database and the testing library are things you have to introduce yourself.

I genuinely wondered why so few other languages had truly “batteries-included” frameworks.

Even worse is that there is often no correct answer for “architecture,” including file structure.

Where would you place the file that defines a User model?

In Rails, of course, it goes in /app/models/user.rb.
But in TypeScript, Go, or Rust? Where do you put it? Do you just create your favorite location???

When hundreds of these decisions pile up, developers feel stressed even just reading the code.

Eventually, they set off on a journey to discover “what good architecture is,” spending time and mental energy on things like Clean Architecture or Onion Architecture that produce no profit at all. (Yes, that was me in the past. lol)

Rails’ strong philosophy is sometimes criticized as “inflexible” or “not suitable for certain cases.”

But unless you are planning a very large-scale project from the beginning, it probably won’t be a problem.

DHH, the creator of Rails, has pointed out that most modern web development is CRUD—that is, applications of simple database reads and writes—and has openly stated that Rails is fully capable within that scope.

This is highly compatible with AI coding.

For example, suppose an AI goes off the rails and writes logic inside the User model that sends an HTTP request. (They do this often.)

In terms of whether it runs or not, it probably will.

But sending HTTP requests is clearly not the responsibility of the model layer. The role of the model layer is to handle database reads/writes and relationships.

The more rotten code increases, the harder it becomes for both humans and AI to maintain the code or add new features.
And AI takes zero responsibility for the code it generates.

That is why, in the age of AI, a strongly opinionated Ruby on Rails becomes a strength.

Specialized for Small-Scale Development

You may have heard people say, “Large companies like GitHub and Shopify use Rails! That’s why you should use Rails!”

That is true, but I’d rather argue that Rails’ real strength shines in smaller, elite teams—say, one to five people.

DHH wrote a book called Rework.

Rework on Amazon

It argues that you can make enough profit with a small team without raising huge amounts of VC funding or hiring employees at scale.
This book influenced my life more than any other.

And I believe this approach of pursuing profit with a small team fits perfectly in the AI age.

Since LLMs became widespread, people have started saying that “a one-person unicorn company will emerge within a few years.”

Going forward, I believe engineering teams will continue to shrink, and the default competition will be about how quickly and how many products you can build and launch until you find PMF.

In other words, we are entering an era where small teams launch many products.

Rails is a framework DHH created for himself.

It is specialized for quickly launching from a business perspective, adding features, getting market feedback, and rapidly repeating that cycle.

The rails g scaffold command is the clearest example of this.

About three weeks have passed since I started my company, and by using only two free days per week—roughly ten days total—I was able to build a product and now have a realistic path to release it next week.

This is possible precisely because of Rails’ strong philosophy based on CoC and the community that supports it.

I don’t think it would have gone that way with something like Next.js. (I can imagine days spent fighting server components and caching.)

As a framework for a small elite team using AI to run the PDCA cycle, I don’t think there is anything more suitable.

bramjetten.dev

And as shown by the large companies mentioned earlier, Rails can also scale properly when used appropriately.

More Than 20 Years of History

Ruby on Rails was released in July 2004. It already has more than 20 years of history!

As you know, for generative AI to produce more accurate results, the quality and quantity of the training data are prerequisites.

As an engineer, I fully understand the desire to build products with “modern” technologies.
But from the perspective of getting a business off the ground, you should absolutely avoid that. The reason is that the probability of failure increases.

When reviewing AI-generated code, haven’t you ever replied, “That was true for an old version, but the latest version is different”?

Rails has been used with consistent rules for more than 20 years, so it almost never outputs wildly incorrect code.

This high level of trust is one of the reasons I love Ruby.

blog.arkency.com

Simple and Easy to Understand

Take a look at recent release notes from well-known frameworks:

“Server Components added?” Weren’t you the ones generating HTML only on the client side?
“Caching is now easier to handle?” Why do I have to think about caching in addition to what I’m eating tomorrow?
“We fixed a vulnerability!” Oh no, my company’s server was used for Bitcoin mining.
“This rendering feature is only supported on ◯ercel!” What a wonderful challenge to the open-source culture.

Honestly, I think many people are tired of recent web trends.

If that sounds like you, please come to the Ruby and Rails community. It’s quiet here.

For those who know nothing about Rails, here’s a quick summary of recent Rails trends:

Hotwire (Stimulus and Turbo) becoming the default: You can implement SPA-like UI experiences with the familiar Rails development style, while writing almost no JavaScript.
Hotwire Native: By applying WebView technology, you can build native-like iOS and Android apps simply by writing normal Rails.
Kamal: If you can prepare your own computer, such as a VPS, you can deploy in just a few steps. (It’s very easy and cheaper to operate than AWS or GCP!)
Production-ready SQLite and Solid Stack: Rails has moved closer to a setup that can be operated without relying on external infrastructure like PostgreSQL or Redis. (Of course, not relying on external services also makes it cheaper!)

These trends are extremely consistent: “Less is more.”

Despite its overwhelming history, I truly love Ruby on Rails as a framework that continues to evolve in a simpler and smarter direction.

Responses to Common Criticisms of Rails

I’ve talked about my love for Rails so far, but finally, I’d like to summarize my own responses to common criticisms of Rails.

It’s not a statically typed language. The lack of type completion is painful.

→ Whether a language is static or dynamic does not change the value delivered to users. Of course, each has its pros and cons.
But I believe Ruby’s flexibility supports Rails’ “OMAKASE for now” culture.
As for type completion, I don’t think you need to place too much importance on it. The existing ruby-lsp works well enough, and DHH himself apparently doesn’t use editor completion in the first place.
Today we also have completion through GitHub Copilot, so from the perspective of “starting a new business,” I don’t think this is a problem.

Ruby code tends to get messy.

→ This can be said of any language. Engineers with low development ability can write messy code in Ruby, TypeScript, Rust, or anything else.
The reason people often claim that “Ruby code gets messy” may be because Ruby is one of the relatively beginner-friendly languages.
Rather than turning it into a language issue, I think we should focus on how to write readable code, how to design databases appropriately, and how to name variables properly.

Also, based on my experience, senior engineers actually tend to write more verbose and harder-to-read code.
I don’t know why, but one hypothesis is that executives and managers throw unnecessarily complex requirements at “reliable senior engineers,” and the code that satisfies those requirements becomes messy as a result.

So rather than Ruby code itself being dirty, I think the unnecessary complexity and ambiguity of business requirements creates the impression that “Ruby/Rails code is somehow hard to read.”

But it’s not popular these days, right?

→ That is a painfully valid point. Ruby’s popularity is steadily declining.
If your goal is to “learn a programming language and increase your salary,” TypeScript is probably the safer choice.
I hope Ruby will be reevaluated.
Because from a business perspective, it is the best language and framework.

Ruby’s poor performance is terrible!

→ Do you want to drive an F1 sports car to the nearest supermarket?
I’m fine with a used compact car.

Twitter escaped from Rails!

→ And then it became Elon Musk’s toy!

I’m Developing a Rails Boilerplate for Solopreneurs

Because I love Rails, want to succeed with my own business using Rails, and want to launch as many products as possible, I’m developing a Rails boilerplate for solopreneurs that specializes in MVP development.
It will be released soon.
~~If you’re interested, I’ll distribute it for free to testers, so please send an email to haruku.maniwa@laicos.tech with the subject “Template Request.”~~

(Update)
The beta version is no longer available!
The official version can still be purchased at super-rails.com.

Super Rails | Rails Boilerplate for Solopreneurs

A production-ready Rails boilerplate with Devise, Avo, Stripe, ViewComponent and more. Skip the setup, ship your MVP in days.

super-rails.com

Have a great development life!

Forem: Hulk in Public

I will continue using Devise with Rails 8!

igorkasyanchuk / any_login

Easy way to login as any user in system

AnyLogin Gem

Description

Requirements

Installation

varvet / pundit

Minimal authorization through OO design and pure Ruby classes

Pundit

Links:

Installation

avo-hq / avo

The Essential Toolkit for building Internal Tools and admin panels with Ruby on Rails

Get started

Features

heartcombo / devise

Flexible authentication solution for Rails with Warden.

Don't fall for the Claude Mythos hype

Thanks to AI, non-engineers have unfortunately become able to use Git

Never Use Service Classes in Rails

basecamp / once-campfire

Super simple group chat, without a subscription

Campfire

Deploying with Docker

GPT image 2.0 Is the Reason I Can Run My Business

Can You Launch a New Business in Just One Month with Rails and AI?

The Solopreneur Lifestyle

Rails Is Not Dead

The Lifespan of a Framework Is the Lifespan of a Business

The Idea I Came Up With

jesseduffield / lazygit

simple terminal UI for git commands

Sponsors

Elevator Pitch

jesseduffield / lazydocker

The lazier way to manage everything docker

Sponsors

Elevator Pitch

Tools Used

AI Tools

Most Development Is Done with GitHub Copilot

Business Logic Is Implemented with Pi and Opencode

ChatGPT's Chat Feels Childish

ChatGPT's image-2.0 Is Insane

Backend

Using a Boilerplate

Rails Is Evolving Toward Less Is More

Frontend

vadimdemedes / ink

🌈 React for interactive command-line apps

Install

Code Example

Rust and Go Were Also Options, But...

How I Deal with Vibe Coding

How the Application Works

Don't Do Wasteful Things

Finished Version

How I Collected the Music

Public-Domain Music

Free Asset Sites Like Pixabay

Lyria3

SunoAI

Speeding Through the "Just Release It" Phase

Costs Incurred

Marketing Strategy for Awareness

Conclusion: Was It Good to Use Rails?

I’ve Given Up on Bun.

Why I Still Choose Ruby on Rails in the Age of AI

Why I Use Rails

A Strongly Opinionated Community

Specialized for Small-Scale Development

More Than 20 Years of History

Simple and Easy to Understand

Responses to Common Criticisms of Rails

It’s not a statically typed language. The lack of type completion is painful.

Ruby code tends to get messy.

But it’s not popular these days, right?

Ruby’s poor performance is terrible!

ChatGPT's `image-2.0` Is Insane