steveclarke

real-world-rails

Research how production Rails apps solve architectural problems using the Real World Rails repository. Use when the user wants to know how other apps handle something, find patterns, or compare approaches. Triggers on "rails patterns", "how do other apps", "real world rails", "research how apps do".

steveclarke 34 1 Updated 3mo ago
GitHub

Install

npx skillscat add steveclarke/dotfiles/real-world-rails

Install via the SkillsCat registry.

SKILL.md

Rails Pattern Research

What This Is

The Real World Rails repository is a collection of 200+ production Rails
application source code. The apps/ directory contains the full source of
each app — models, migrations, schema, controllers, views, concerns, gems.
The engines/ directory contains Rails engines.

Notable apps in the collection include Discourse, Mastodon, GitLab, Chatwoot,
Gumroad, Spree, Solidus, Redmine, Canvas LMS, Loomio, Fat Free CRM,
Locomotive CMS, Camaleon CMS, and many others. Recent additions include
37signals apps: Upright (monitoring), Fizzy (kanban), and Campfire (chat).

Locating the Repository

Look for a directory called real-world-rails with an apps/ subdirectory.
Check the current working directory first, then ~/src/real-world-rails. If
not found, ask the user where it lives.

What To Do

The user gives you a topic. Spin up parallel agents to search the apps for
how real codebases implement that pattern. Read actual code — models,
schemas, migrations, associations, validations, query patterns — not just
file names. Synthesize what you find into a clear analysis.

If the user's wording suggests they want help choosing a pattern for their
current project (words like "compare for us", "which fits best",
"adversarial", "debate", "evaluate for our project"), also spin up adversarial
agents that each argue for a different pattern in the context of the current
project's architecture and goals.