Real World Rails skill
A skill and a collection of 200-plus production Rails apps where an agent studies how real projects solve architecture problems
- 544 ★ on the repository
- Last commit
- MIT
Minimal access
Why this level
- The skill reads code in a local copy of the repository and executes nothing
- The bin/setup install downloads hundreds of repositories as submodules and takes about 10 GB of disk
Install
- Works in
In your terminal, with SkillFoxx CLI
npx skillfoxx add skills/real-world-railsDetects the agents on your machine, shows the access level and pins the version.
Other ways to install
Access and checks
How we reviewMinimal accessThe tool runs nothing and makes no network calls.
- The skill reads code in a local copy of the repository and executes nothing
- The bin/setup install downloads hundreds of repositories as submodules and takes about 10 GB of disk
This is third-party code. Review the repository files before installing.
What it does
The repository gathers the source of more than 200 active open source Rails apps and engines into one folder, and the /real-world-rails skill teaches an agent to search that corpus. You name a topic such as multi-tenancy, background job retries, PDF generation or soft deletes. The agent runs parallel searches across the apps and engines folders, reads real models, schemas, migrations, associations, validations and queries rather than just file names, and merges the findings into an analysis. If the wording asks for help choosing an approach for your project (compare for us, which fits best, evaluate), the skill also spawns adversarial agents that each argue for a different pattern against your project's architecture. The apps are git submodules. bin/setup clones them shallowly, about 10 GB, and bin/setup --full pulls the full history, about 29 GB. A GitHub Actions workflow opens a weekly pull request updating the submodules. Your own notes go into the git-ignored analyses folder.
Who it is for. Rails developers who want to see how dozens of production projects handled the same problem before choosing an approach, working with Claude Code or another agent.
Good fit when
- You are choosing a multi-tenancy scheme and want to compare how dozens of apps did it
- You need to see how real projects build background job retries or PDF generation
- You are comparing Devise with custom authentication on live code instead of articles
- You want a review with opponents: agents defend different patterns against your project
Not a fit when
- Your project is not on Rails: the corpus contains only Ruby on Rails apps
- You lack 10 GB of disk for a shallow copy or Git LFS is not installed
- You need an answer from framework documentation rather than from other projects' practice
Example request
Research through real-world-rails how apps implement soft deletes and compare the approaches against my projectLimitations
- The skill searches a local copy, so first clone the repository and run bin/setup: all apps load as submodules.
- A shallow copy takes about 10 GB and the full history about 29 GB.
- The corpus is refreshed by a weekly GitHub Actions pull request, so freshness depends on that request being merged.
- Parallel search across hundreds of apps spends many tokens, especially in the adversarial mode.
How to disable. Remove the skill from the agent's skills folder with npx skills remove or by hand. The collection itself is removed by deleting the cloned real-world-rails folder with its submodules, which frees about 10 GB.
FAQ
How do I install the real-world-rails skill?
Run npx skills add steveclarke/real-world-rails. Then clone the repository, enter it and run bin/setup to pull all apps as submodules. The skill looks for a real-world-rails folder with an apps directory in the current directory, then in ~/src.
How much disk space does real-world-rails take?
About 10 GB for the shallow clone after bin/setup and about 29 GB with full history after bin/setup --full. Git LFS is required too.
How is the project related to eliotsykes/real-world-rails?
It is an actively maintained continuation of that repository. The list of included apps and engines with descriptions is in repos.md, and bin/add adds new apps.
What questions can I ask the skill?
Topics such as background job retries, multi-tenancy, PDF generation, soft deletes or Devise versus custom authentication. The agent reads app models, schemas and migrations and merges findings into an analysis.
What does the adversarial mode do?
When a request asks for help choosing an approach for your project, the skill spawns several agents and each defends a different pattern against the project's architecture. You see trade-offs, not just a list of implementations.
Discussion
No questions or reviews yet.
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Comparison with similar tools
Cards that share the main search query, and how they differ.
| Tool | Official | Authentication | Repository stars | Main difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real World Rails (this card) | no | 544 | ||
| Layered Rails Skills | no | 479 | skills with advice on Rails application layers, while this searches live code of hundreds of projects | |
| rails-ai-context | no | not required | 186 | context about your own Rails project for the agent, while this is other production apps for comparison |
README in short
The README explains why a corpus of production Rails apps helps agents, gives example questions and an install guide with a size warning. Submodule updates, the scripts in bin, criteria for adding apps and links to similar collections for Nuxt, Sinatra and Django follow.
README badge
Original SKILL.md
--- name: real-world-rails description: 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". --- # 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. ## 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.