Rails Pattern Research
What This Is
The
Real World Rails repository is a collection of 200+ production Rails
application source code. The
directory contains the full source of
each app — models, migrations, schema, controllers, views, concerns, gems.
The
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
with an
subdirectory.
Check the current working directory first, then
. 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.