The Shopify Goldmine: How to Build Your First App in Rails
If you know Ruby on Rails, you are already sitting on a goldmine.
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Real-Time Engagement: Web Push Notifications in Rails 8
For a long time, if you wanted to send a “Push Notification” to a user’s phone or laptop, you needed a native mobile app. For solo developers, this was a hug...
The Budget-Friendly Monolith: Rails File Uploads with Cloudflare R2
If you have been using AWS S3 for your Rails file uploads, you know the pain of the monthly bill. It’s not just the storage cost; it’s the Egress Fees. Every...
Pro File Uploads in Rails 8: Speed and Scalability with Direct Uploads
Imagine a user trying to upload a 100MB video or a high-resolution photo to your app. If you use the standard Rails file upload, that file travels from the u...
Zero-JS Search: Building a Live-Filter with Turbo 8 Page Morphing
I’ve lost count of the number of hours I’ve spent in the past building “Live Search” features.
Datastar in Rails 8: Real-Time UI Without the WebSocket Headache
I am a huge fan of Hotwire. It’s what allowed me to stop writing massive React apps and go back to enjoying Ruby. But recently, a new player has entered the ...
Go for Rubyists: A Practical Guide to Learning Golang
I love Ruby. It is the language that made me happy to write code. But as a Rails developer, I eventually hit a wall. Maybe I needed to process a 2GB CSV file...
Is Coding Over? 5 Career Pivots for Rails Devs in the AI Era
If you spend any time on Tech Twitter lately, you might feel like the sky is falling. People are saying that “coding is dead” and that AI will replace every ...
Demystifying Rails Magic: How Autoloading Actually Works
I remember when I first started learning Ruby outside of Rails. I was building a small script, and my code kept crashing with NameError: uninitialized consta...
Stripe-Style IDs in Rails: A Guide to the custom_id Gem
If you have ever used the Stripe API, you’ve noticed their IDs look awesome. Instead of a random number or a long, confusing UUID, they look like this: cus_M...
Rapid UI Development: Top 4 Component Kits for Solo Rails Devs
I remember the days when building a professional-looking dashboard in Rails meant spending a whole week wrestling with CSS flexbox and custom SVG icons. You’...
ViewComponent vs. Phlex: Which Ruby UI Library Should You Choose?
I remember when my app/views folder was a complete disaster. I had deeply nested partials, instance variables floating everywhere, and logic hidden inside HT...
The AI Support Agent: Connecting n8n, OpenAI, and Your Rails DB
I used to wake up every morning to a wall of support emails. As a solo developer, this is the ultimate “flow-state” killer.
MVT vs MVC: Understanding Django Through a Rails Lens
If you are a Rails developer, you are used to the “Omakase” experience. Everything is chosen for you, and there is a very specific “Rails Way” to do things.
The $5 VPS Reality: My Honest Math on Moving to Kamal 2
I remember the day I got my first $200 bill from a PaaS provider (Platform as a Service).
From Coder to Architect: How to Learn Rails When AI Writes the Code
I recently realized that the way I learned Ruby on Rails ten years ago is now completely obsolete.
Stop Using JS for Everything: Harnessing the Power of Pure CSS in 2026
I remember when building a simple dropdown menu or a sticky header required a library like jQuery. Later, we moved to writing Stimulus controllers or React h...
The Developer’s Way to Track Traffic: Self-Hosting Ackee or Plausible
I recently took a long look at my Rails projects and realized I was carrying around a piece of technical debt that was actually hurting my user experience: G...
Count, Length, or Size? Avoiding ActiveRecord Performance Traps
I remember when I first started with Rails, I thought .count, .length, and .size were exactly the same thing. I used them interchangeably in my views and con...
From ERB to Phlex: 5 Steps to Pure Ruby Views
I love Rails, but I’ve always found ERB to be a bit messy. You spend your whole day jumping between the “Backend” (clean Ruby code) and the “Frontend” (a mix...
UUID v7 vs. ULID: Which Sortable ID Should You Choose?
For a long time, if you wanted a primary key that was both unique and chronological, you reached for ULID. It was the perfect “indie” solution to the randomn...
Stop Making Ugly Apps: Simple Tailwind Tricks for Backend Developers
I know the feeling of opening a blank index.html.erb file and having no idea how to make it look “premium.” You have the Rails backend working perfectly, but...
The Better Primary Key: A Guide to ULIDs for Rails Developers
In a previous article, I talked about Snowflake IDs. They are great, but they require a bit of configuration because you need to manage “Worker IDs.”
Stop Chasing Hype: Why I Chose Postgres Over ‘New-Age’ Databases
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been tempted by a “revolutionary” new database.
n8n vs ByteChef: Which Automation Engine Should You Self-Host?
Automating the “glue work” of a SaaS business is a survival skill for a solo developer. You need to sync Stripe payments to your database, send Discord alert...
Distributed Uniqueness: Implementing Twitter Snowflake IDs in Rails 8
When you run rails generate model, Rails defaults to using a standard auto-incrementing integer for your primary keys. Your first user is ID: 1, your second ...
The Vibe Coder’s Survival Guide: Concepts You Can’t Just Prompt Away
We are living in a wild time for software development. With tools like Cursor, Windsurf, and ChatGPT, you can “vibe” your way into a working application with...
The Perfect Zsh Setup: Oh My Zsh on CachyOS/Arch
If you want a terminal that tells you if a command is valid, predicts what you’re about to type, and shows your Git branches, follow this clean-slate guide.
Completing the Puzzle: Adding Signup and Password Resets to Rails 8 Auth
If you’ve tried the new rails generate authentication command in Rails 8, you know it’s a breath of fresh air. It gives you a solid, secure foundation for se...
Rails 8 Built-in Auth vs. Devise: Why the Default Finally Wins
For almost 15 years, if you wanted to build a Rails app with a login system, the answer was always the same: Devise.
Build Once, Launch Ten Times: The Rails Engine SaaS Strategy
If you are a solo developer with “Shiny Object Syndrome,” you know the feeling. You have a great idea for a new SaaS on a Saturday morning. You run rails new...
Ditching Redis: How to Handle WebSockets in Rails 8 with Solid Cable
Real-Time Rails Without Redis: A Guide to Solid Cable
The Magic of Turbo Frames: Infinite Pagination in Pure HTML
Building an Infinite Scroll in Rails 8 (Zero Custom JavaScript)
Why I Stopped Using Stripe: The Case for Merchant of Records (MoR)
If you are building a SaaS in 2026, the default advice is always the same: “Just plug in Stripe and launch.”
Stop Paying for Vector Databases: How to Build AI Search in Postgres
I see developers trying to build “AI Chatbots” that know about their specific company data. They want the AI to read their PDFs, their internal wikis, or the...
Background AI: Using Solid Queue for Slow OpenAI API Calls
Very often I see developers integrating AI into their Rails apps for the first time, and they make a critical mistake that completely destroys their server p...
Stop Leaking API Keys: Managing Secrets in Kamal 2
I see developers make a mistake that can ruin their entire month.
The Solo Developer’s Secret Weapon: Self-Hosted Automation with n8n
Automating My Life: How I Use n8n Instead of Custom Ruby Scripts
Killing the Password: How to Add Passkeys to Your Rails 8 App
Very often I see users struggling with the absolute worst part of the internet: Passwords.
10 Crypto Disasters That Shook the World (And What They Teach Coders)
In the world of cryptocurrency, we often say that “code is law.” But when that law has a bug, or the person writing the law is a thief, billions of dollars c...
Hotwire Native vs NativePHP: How Web Frameworks are Conquering Mobile and Desktop
Hotwire Native vs NativePHP: How Web Frameworks are Conquering Mobile and Desktop
Stop Fearing OOP: A Simple Guide to Ruby Classes for Beginners
The Blueprint and the House: Ruby Classes and Objects Explained
Build Your Own Cloud Empire: Hosting Unlimited Rails Apps with Kamal 2
If you are a solo developer or an indie hacker, you probably suffer from “Shiny Object Syndrome.” You have 10 different ideas, and you want to launch all of ...
Images, Volumes, and Containers: Docker Explained in Plain English
Very often I see developers completely give up on learning Docker because of the vocabulary.
How to Build a Desktop App with Rails 8 and Electron
From Web to Desktop: Wrapping a Rails Hotwire App in Electron
High ROI Testing: The 3 Secrets Every Solo Rails Dev Needs
Very often I see solo developers fall into one of two traps.
The Importmap Guide to Shadcn: Beautiful UI with Zero Build Step
How to Use Shadcn UI in Rails 8 (Without React or Webpack)
The Secret to Side-by-Side Gem Development in Rails
Stop Pushing to GitHub: How to Test Ruby Gems Locally
The Language of the Web: HTTP Basics You Actually Need to Know
HTTP Basics You Must Know As A Web Developer
Stop Using Ugly Browser Alerts: Custom Turbo Confirms in Rails 8
I’m building a really nice, modern Rails application. I use Tailwind to make the buttons look great, I use Hotwire to make the page load instantly, and then…...
Rails 8: How to Auto-Generate Social Media Preview Cards
Very often I find myself sharing a link to my new Rails project on Twitter, Discord, or LinkedIn. But when I paste the link, the preview just shows a blank, ...
OOP vs Functional Programming Explained for Dummies
I see beginner developers get completely overwhelmed by computer science jargon. You read an article about “Monads,” “Polymorphism,” or “Immutability,” and y...
The Developer’s Hardware Wallet: A Review of the OneKey Classic 1S
The Developer’s Hardware Wallet: A Review of the OneKey Classic 1S
Laravel for Rails Devs: How to Learn the Sister Framework in a Weekend
A Rails Developer’s Cheat Sheet to Learning Laravel
How to Actually Get Hired on Upwork as a Rails Developer
If you log into Upwork today, you might feel completely overwhelmed. Every job post has 50+ proposals within the first ten minutes. The platform is flooded w...
How Turbo 8 Morphing Makes Rails Frontend Development Feel Like Magic
When Hotwire first came out, it felt like a superpower. We could finally update our web pages without full browser reloads, and we didn’t have to write a sin...
How to Add a Visual Page Builder to Your Rails App in 10 Minutes
The Quickest Way to Build a Drag-and-Drop Landing Page Builder in Rails 8
How I Built a Native Android App with Almost Zero Kotlin Experience
Turning a Rails App into an Android App: Testing Hotwire Native
Making Sense of JavaScript in Rails: Webpack, Rollup, esbuild, and Importmaps
Very often I find myself talking to developers who are incredibly confused by the JavaScript ecosystem in Rails.
How to Build a Custom Affiliate System in Ruby on Rails
When you are launching a new SaaS, getting your first users is the hardest part. One of the best ways to grow is to create an affiliate (or referral) program...
It Looks Like Ruby, But It’s Not: How to Understand Elixir
If you write Ruby, you will eventually get curious about Elixir. The creator of Elixir, José Valim, was a huge figure in the Ruby on Rails community. Because...
Pundit vs CanCanCan vs Action Policy: Which Rails Auth Gem Wins?
Sometimes I find myself starting a new Rails project, and almost immediately, I hit a wall: User Permissions.
Wise Testing: What to Test (and Ignore) as a Solo Rails Developer
Solo founders fail for a completely preventable reason. It’s not because their idea was bad, and it’s not because they couldn’t code. It’s because they spent...
Stop AI Spaghetti: Enforcing Rails Architecture in 2026
We are fully in the era of autonomous coding. If you use tools like Cursor, Windsurf, or Copilot Workspace, you know how fast you can move. You type a prompt...
How to Fix N+1 Queries in Rails Like a Pro
There are Rails applications that run incredibly fast on a developer’s laptop, but the moment they are deployed to production, they crawl to a halt. The page...
Building a World-Class Search Engine in Rails with Searchkick
Stop Using SQL LIKE: A Step-by-Step Guide to Elasticsearch in Rails
The Easiest Way to Add Drag and Drop to Your Rails App
Building Drag and Drop in Rails 8 with SortableJS and Importmaps
AdonisJS vs Ruby on Rails: Which MVC Framework Wins?
Very often I see JavaScript developers getting tired of building backend APIs with Express.js. Express is incredibly fast, but it has zero structure. You hav...
How to Accept Crypto Payments in Your Rails 8 App
When users reach out asking: “Can I pay with Bitcoin or USDC?”
The Ultimate Guide to Universal Linux Apps: Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage
Very often I find myself remembering the “bad old days” of Linux. If you wanted to install a simple app, you had to add a random PPA repository, run apt-get ...
Why Ruby on Rails is the Secret Weapon for AI Startups
Everyone knows that Python is the king of training AI models. But if you want to actually build a web app that uses AI (like an AI copywriter, a smart chatbo...
Stop Using RVM: The Ultimate Guide to Ruby Version Managers
rbenv vs rvm vs asdf vs mise vs chruby vs direnv
How to Use Rails Magic Methods in Plain Ruby Scripts
Very often I find myself writing small, standalone Ruby scripts. Maybe it’s a web scraper, a small background worker, or a quick Sinatra API.
The Ultimate Showdown: Rails 8 vs Phoenix LiveView
If you are a Ruby on Rails developer, you have definitely heard about Elixir and the Phoenix framework.
Ditch Node.js: A Simple Guide to Rails Importmaps
How Importmaps Work in Rails (And Why You Don’t Need Webpack)
Hotwire vs Inertia.js: Which One Should You Use in Rails?
For a long time, if you wanted to build a fast, modern web application without page reloads, you had to build two completely separate apps. You had to build ...
The Secret to Fast Web Scraping: Finding Internal JSON APIs
When I first started web scraping, my workflow was always the same. I would use Nokogiri to download the HTML page, and then I would spend hours writing craz...
The Ruby on Rails Job Market in 2026: Why It’s Better Than Ever
If you spend too much time on X or Reddit, you might think the only jobs left in 2026 are for AI prompt engineers or Rust developers. Every year, someone wri...
Rails vs Laravel vs Django vs NestJS: Why I Still Choose Ruby
If you want to build a web application or a SaaS today, the first thing you have to do is pick a backend framework.
A Beginner’s Guide to ClickHouse in Ruby on Rails
When you build a standard Rails app, PostgreSQL (or MySQL) is your best friend. It handles your users, your posts, and your billing perfectly.
My Favorite Rails Productivity Gem: annotate_models
Very often I find myself working inside a Rails model, and I need to write a validation or a custom method. But I suddenly forget the exact name of my databa...
Why I Stopped Using Bootstrap and Moved to Tailwind CSS
When I first started building web applications, Bootstrap was the absolute standard. Every tutorial used it, and it was the fastest way to get a decent-looki...
Stop Fearing DevOps: A Rails Developer’s Guide to Docker
I know that DevOps and server management can be very confusing, even if you have years of experience writing Ruby code. For a long time, deploying a Rails ap...
If You Love Ruby But Need More Speed: Elixir vs Crystal
If you write Ruby code, you already know why it is so popular. It is incredibly easy to read, and frameworks like Ruby on Rails make building web apps very f...
Taking a Monthly Cut: Rails, Stripe Connect, and Recurring Billing
In the previous article, we looked at how to use Stripe Connect to take a cut from a one-time payment. But what if you are building a platform like Patreon, ...
The Ruby Browser War: Playwright vs. Ferrum (2026 Edition)
The New Guard For a decade, Selenium was the king of browser automation. It was slow, clunky, and flaky, but it was all we had.
The GraphQL Goldmine: How to Reverse Engineer APIs for Scraping
The “One Endpoint” Revolution In the old REST world, if you wanted to scrape a user’s profile, their posts, and their comments, you might have to hit three d...
How to Use ActiveRecord Without Rails
Very often I find myself writing small Ruby scripts to scrape data, process CSV files, or build a tiny Sinatra API. In these situations, generating a massive...
Is it Worth Becoming a Rails Developer in 2026? (The Honest Truth)
The “Dead” Language Paradox If you listen to Twitter (or X), Ruby on Rails died sometime around 2017. Everyone moved to Next.js, Go, or Rust. Bootcamps stopp...
Stripe Connect Simplified: Routing Payments in Your Rails App
Building a SaaS where users pay you is easy. But what if you want to build a marketplace? Like Airbnb, Fiverr, or a platform where users pay other users, and...
Stop Building Ugly Admin Panels: Why Avo is the Future of Rails Admins
The “Admin Panel” Ticket We all know the feeling. You are building an exciting new SaaS. The core product is looking great. Then, you look at your backlog an...
The ‘Middle’ of Nowhere: Demystifying Middleware in Rails
The “Black Box” Between the Browser and Your Code When you are learning Rails, you usually think the flow works like this: User clicks a link. Magic hap...
Why You Should Stop Just Posting on Dev.to (and Where to Go Instead)
The Developer’s Dilemma You’ve just spent three days debugging a complex Rails 8 migration or finally perfected your Arch Linux dotfiles. You want to write a...
The Renaissance of the One-Person Framework: Why Rails is More Relevant Than Ever
If I had a nickel for every time a “State of Web Dev” article declared Ruby on Rails dead, I wouldn’t need to write code for a living.
Why I Switched from RSpec to Minitest (Rails Default)
The Industry Standard If you’ve been in the Rails ecosystem for a while, RSpec is likely your default. It’s what most bootcamps teach, it’s what most enterpr...
Not Just HTML: Scraping Data from Messy PDFs
The “Final Boss” of Data Extraction You’ve mastered Nokogiri. You can navigate a nested <div> structure with your eyes closed. But then, your client or...
How Hotwire Restored My Sanity in Web Development
I’ll admit it: I used to be a React maximalist.
You Are Writing Regex Wrong: A Guide to Ruby’s Best Hidden Feature
The “Two Problems” Joke There is an old programmer joke: “Some people, when confronted with a problem, think ‘I know, I’ll use regular expressions.’ Now t...
Ruby vs. Python: Why I Choose Happiness Over Hype
Let’s get the elephant out of the room immediately: Python has won the popularity contest.
The Ultimate Ruby Scraping Stack: From Nokogiri to Ferrum
Web scraping in Ruby isn’t a “one size fits all” task. If you use a headless browser for a static site, you’re wasting CPU. If you use Nokogiri for a React a...
The Faster Way to Scrape: Finding ‘Hidden’ APIs in Modern Websites
The Headless Browser Trap If you want to scrape a modern React or Vue website, the “standard” advice is to use a headless browser like Selenium or Playwright...
The SaaS Architecture Guide: How to Handle Multitenancy in Rails Routing
Most Rails developers stop learning routing after resources :posts.
The Missing Macro: 3 Ways to ‘belongs_to :through’ in Rails
The Missing Link If you’ve spent more than a week with Ruby on Rails, you’ve probably used has_many :through. It’s the standard way to reach “down” across as...
The Magic of lvh.me: Testing Rails Subdomains in Development
The /etc/hosts Headache If you are building a SaaS that uses subdomains (like app.mysite.com or tenant.mysite.com), testing them locally is usually a pain.
Why I Stopped Using Docker in Development
The Industry Standard Trap If you look at any “Modern Web Dev” tutorial, Step 1 is almost always: Install Docker.
TDD is a Luxury: Pragmatic Testing for the Solo Developer
The Dogma vs. The Deadline If you spend any time in the Rails community, you’ve heard the gospel: Test-Driven Development (TDD) is the only way to write prof...
Stop Using Net::HTTP: A Guide to Modern Ruby Requests
Ruby has a standard library for making web requests called Net::HTTP. It is famously terrible.
Dear Future Me: How to Write Code You Won’t Hate in 6 Months
The “I’ll Remember This” Lie We tell ourselves the same lie every day. “I don’t need to write down why I used this specific regex. It’s obvious. I built it. ...
Stop Building Settings Pages: A Guide to Ruthless MVP Scoping
The Graveyard of Perfect Apps We all have a ~/projects folder filled with half-finished dreams. Usually, the code isn’t broken. The idea isn’t bad. The proje...
AI Assistance vs. Vibe Coding: The Two Modes of Modern Development
It is wild how fast things change. Just a few years ago, we were amazed that GitHub Copilot could autocomplete a def index method in our controller.
Where Does gem install Actually Go? Exploring the Ruby Filesystem
We type gem install rails or bundle install every day. Text scrolls down the screen, and suddenly we can use the library.
The Holy Trinity: Ruby, Bundler, and Gemfiles Explained
If you are coming from JavaScript (npm/yarn) or Python (pip/virtualenv), the Ruby way of doing things can feel slightly different.
The Solo Frontend Team: Building a UI System in Pure Ruby
The “Partial” Problem We love Rails. We love ERB. But let’s be honest: app/views is usually the messiest part of any Rails codebase. .
Using Ruby Model Classes, Service Objects and Interactors
Using a model class (even a simple PORO in app/models) for features has several advantages in Rails. This is why developers often prefer “a model class” over...
Cheat Sheet For a JavaScript Developer Diving Into TypeScript For The First Time
Here is a cheat sheet for a JavaScript developer diving into TypeScript (TS) for the first time.
Add TailwindCss 4 to Vite React App
Here is the guide to adding Tailwind CSS v4 to an existing Vite React app.
After Merging Changes on GitHub, Sync Them to Your Local Branch
After merging changes to main on GitHub, here’s how to sync them to your local main branch:
How to Use Form Validations in Dialog with NitroKit
I’ve ran into issues trying to validate form inside dialog component using NitroKit UI components. The dialog kept closing on every submission, the solution ...
How to Install AUR Packages on Manjaro
Manjaro, based on Arch Linux, supports the Arch User Repository (AUR). Below are the steps to install AUR packages on Manjaro.
How to Add an Already Committed File to Gitignore
If you’ve already committed a file to Git and want to add it to .gitignore, follow these steps.
Programming
ELI5: Compiled Language vs Interpreted Language
Compiled languages are faster but need a prep step (compiling), while interpreted ones are easier to change but can be slower.
Javascript
Creating a New Vue App with Vite
Vite is a modern frontend build tool that provides extremely fast development server startup and hot module replacement. Here’s how to create a new Vue app u...