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Returning to Rails in 2026

markround.com

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Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#2
The main line on the Rails website now reads:

> Accelerate your agents with convention over configuration. Ruby on Rails scales from PROMPT to IPO. Token-efficient code that's easy for agents to write and beautiful for humans to review

And I fucking hate it. If I read this the first time I would think this is some kind of tool to optimize your LLM agents.

I have been using Rails for over a decade now and always liked the focus on writing beautiful and simple code. On making it easy to reason about with colleagues. Now it seems like DHH is throwing all what made Rails special overboard.

If we are all supposed to be talking to agents now, what's the difference if my agent uses fucking Next, Nuxt, Rails or Django?

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#3
post #2

The main line on the Rails website now reads: > Accelerate your agents with convention over configuration. Ruby on Rails scales from PROMPT to IPO. Token-efficient code that's easy for agents to write and beautiful for humans to review And I fucking hate it. If I read this the first time I would think this is some kind of tool to optimize your LLM agents. I have been using Rails for over a decade now and always liked…

> what's the difference if my agent uses fucking Next, Nuxt, Rails or Django?

The claim seems quite clear to me: "convention over configuration allows coding agents to be more effective".

But yes, I do agree that the main line should say what Ruby on Rails actually is, not why it's good for your agent.

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#4
post #2

The main line on the Rails website now reads: > Accelerate your agents with convention over configuration. Ruby on Rails scales from PROMPT to IPO. Token-efficient code that's easy for agents to write and beautiful for humans to review And I fucking hate it. If I read this the first time I would think this is some kind of tool to optimize your LLM agents. I have been using Rails for over a decade now and always liked…

>If we are all supposed to be talking to agents now, what's the difference[...]?

it's a little cringe, but arguably the benefit of having agents use rails would be tht when you review and audit the agent produced code, you review something that is, as you put it: "beautiful and simple code" and "making it easy to reason about..."

I loved rails back in 2017. I may be an outlier but the line tempts me to try it again despite having adopted the who cares attitude to langs. Would be nice to hear from someone first hand if they felt it helped.

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#5
I had a project I already tried out in Symfony and then full typescript, both a normal REST setup and ORPC. They all felt like - at scale - they became messy and I was unsure where goes what.

I gave RoR a try last year, and so far I'm at the same level I was with the other projects but I actually enjoy programming the project after the PoC phase. Maybe because third time's a charm? Maybe because I know what I need to do? Who knows! But RoR fits in that idiom.

Just to note, its a really boring app thats been done before (odeva.app)

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#6
post #2

The main line on the Rails website now reads: > Accelerate your agents with convention over configuration. Ruby on Rails scales from PROMPT to IPO. Token-efficient code that's easy for agents to write and beautiful for humans to review And I fucking hate it. If I read this the first time I would think this is some kind of tool to optimize your LLM agents. I have been using Rails for over a decade now and always liked…

> Accelerate your agents with convention over configuration. Ruby on Rails scales from PROMPT to IPO. Token-efficient code that's easy for agents to write and beautiful for humans to review

This is so painful... I can't help but wonder who they're trying to target with such inane slogans.

Rails is amazing, but "token-efficiency" is not on the list of reasons why.

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#8
post #2

The main line on the Rails website now reads: > Accelerate your agents with convention over configuration. Ruby on Rails scales from PROMPT to IPO. Token-efficient code that's easy for agents to write and beautiful for humans to review And I fucking hate it. If I read this the first time I would think this is some kind of tool to optimize your LLM agents. I have been using Rails for over a decade now and always liked…

> what's the difference if my agent uses fucking Next, Nuxt, Rails or Django? The claim seems quite clear to me: "convention over configuration allows coding agents to be more effective". But yes, I do agree that the main line should say what Ruby on Rails actually is, not why it's good for your agent.

There was a post last week about the best programming language for LLMs, and in the comments people loved Go, with the claim being it's very opinionated and there's really only one way of doing things. I'd say the same is mostly true for Rails apps as well.

However having worked with Typescript for 8 years now... I'm not sure I could go back to Ruby without types. For LLMs thats important as well, the more guard rails you can give them the better. What's the state of type checkers today?

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#9
post #6
post #2

The main line on the Rails website now reads: > Accelerate your agents with convention over configuration. Ruby on Rails scales from PROMPT to IPO. Token-efficient code that's easy for agents to write and beautiful for humans to review And I fucking hate it. If I read this the first time I would think this is some kind of tool to optimize your LLM agents. I have been using Rails for over a decade now and always liked…

> Accelerate your agents with convention over configuration. Ruby on Rails scales from PROMPT to IPO. Token-efficient code that's easy for agents to write and beautiful for humans to review This is so painful... I can't help but wonder who they're trying to target with such inane slogans. Rails is amazing, but "token-efficiency" is not on the list of reasons why.

> This is so painful... I can't help but wonder who they're trying to target with such inane slogans.

The people who think that spicy autocomplete actually has an understanding of the slop it's churning out for them.

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#10
I love rails and the recent improvements are great.

I have the impression, though, that these days it only appeals to those who picked it up before version 3 or 4, when it was smaller, maybe more understandable, and incredibly better than all the competing frameworks (except Django maybe).

If your first contact with rails is version 7+ and you’re only comfortable with JS/TS, then you’re not going to get it and might actually strongly dislike it

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