Play with your code

Rachael Wright-Munn

Why are programming games more fun than our day jobs? We're going to dig into this exact question and see what lessons we can learn from them, and how we can bring it back to our developer experience. Also, we're going to talk about some rad programming games you should play!

Derailing Our Application: How and Why We Are Decoupling Our Code from Rails

Fito von Zastrow, Alan Ridlehoover

Successful Rails apps tend to become massive monoliths over time. Our's is no exception. Our team is over 1000 engineers. Our codebase is over 4 million lines of Ruby. But, Rails doesn't tell you how to manage that many developers working on that large a codebase. So, we're encouraging modularization and boundaries within our codebase. Our approach is lightweight and actually producing results. We're the right ones to talk about this because we're the one's issuing the guidance internally.

Real-time collaboration with Rails, AnyCable and Yjs

JP Camara

Real-time collaboration is a powerful tool for web apps, but difficult to implement. Most Ruby developers lack CRDT exposure and collaborative software challenges like conflict resolution and distributed consistency. This talk shows how to leverage Rails while adding sophisticated collaborative features using AnyCable to boost ActionCable performance and Yjs to simplify collaborative editing. I've specifically been implementing this approach in a production Rails setting, giving me a solid perspective on the challenges involved.

Rails Expertise, Distilled: AI Agents That Get Your Monolith

Brandon Weaver

New developers face months of unproductive confusion when dropped into massive codebases they can't navigate or understand. What if they could get instant answers about how systems work, identify what code needs changing, and understand complex business logic without waiting for help? This talk demonstrates how Rails' built-in introspection transforms into expert AI tools that understand your specific codebase, making institutional knowledge accessible 24/7. Instead of 3-month ramp-ups, developers contribute meaningfully in days while the entire team stays productive.

Master the Rails Asset Pipeline: Best Practices for Apps & Gems

Adrian Marin

I toyed around with asset handling a lot in the last 4 years. I started in the pre-webpacker era, and came all the way to importmaps, esbuild and vite. I ship a gem (Avo), which is used in hundreds of different applications with different asset pipeline configurations, and use several techniques to ship my assets. Now I'm developing a plugin system and have hit all the roadblocks I can hit and have a better understanding of how things work.

Performance starts at boot

Ben Sheldon

Everyone can better understand how their Ruby code performs, regardless of whether they're using Rails or Hanami or just scripting with Ruby. As applications grow, I frequently see inside-out application performance work ignored or unacceptably tolerated ("that's just the way it is [sigh]").

ZJIT: The Future of Ruby Performance

Takashi Kokubun

Since Rails 7.2 enabled YJIT by default, it has been widely adopted by the Ruby community, delivering a 10-20% speedup in various production workloads. To enhance Ruby's speed even further, we're developing the next generation of YJIT for Ruby 3.5: ZJIT. In this talk, we'll delve into the exciting future of Ruby performance that ZJIT will unlock.

Peace, Love, and CRUD: Finding Calm in the Chaos—With Ruby, AI, and a Little Garden Magic

Tia Anderson

This talk matters because we are enduring death by a thousand quiet cuts. The world asks us to go faster while our spirits beg us to slow down. Emotional exhaustion has become the norm, but it doesn't have to be. I built Peace of Mind not just with Rails, but with urgency and heart. As a newer dev and RailsConf Scholar, I've lived the tension between burnout and beauty. Choosing peace...in our work, our lives, and our code creates ripples. It starts with one. One you. One me.

Navigating programming language evolution in the AI era

José Valim

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into software development, we find ourselves facing questions about how our programming languages and tools should evolve - questions that don't yet have clear answers. Rather than prescribing solutions, this talk explores the open questions and possible directions that developers and tooling authors should be grappling with.

AI Interface in 5 Minutes - Model Context Protocol on Rails

Paweł Strzałkowski

This talk delivers a low-risk, high-value AI strategy that applies to any Rails app, new or old. It proves the ecosystem's power to modernize existing assets in the AI era without the need for expensive rewrites. It teaches one of the key aspects of the modern AI tech stack, giving a competitive advantage. I'm a CTO, a veteran Rails developer and a vetted conference speaker. My expertise on a similar topic is validated by my upcoming talks at Rails World and EuRuKo this year. I'm excited to bring this timely material to the US community

Start Writing Ruby (Stop Using Classes)

Dave Thomas

We are writing our Ruby code wrongly. We're using classes as the unit of design; we needn't, and we shouldn't. We use design patterns as recipes; they're largely irrelevant. We come up with arcane project structures and convoluted deployment systems; we needn't. For the last half-decade, I've been writing Ruby very differently to my previous style. Almost no classes. Creating structure as it grows, rather than before I start. Drastically cutting down dependencies. The result: my code seems drastically easier to write, maintain, and reuse. I'd like the opportunity the spread the word.

The MCP Fog Made Me Do It: A Ruby Inspector's Unexpected Journey

Enrique Carlos Mogollán

MCP is still pretty foggy for most developers, and Ruby shouldn't be left out of the AI tooling party. This story shows how a simple "let me figure this out" project can accidentally become something fun and interesting to share. I've been learning about MCP, from the official ruby SDK, and stumbled onto this idea of self-generating UI interfaces. If you've ever stared a new project and wondered "how do I even start?", this talk is one example from foggy confusion to sunshine moment of "holy smokes, I didn't know that was possible." Besides, Ruby deserves a seat at the AI table.

Pack It Up: Why Packwerk Can’t Save Your Messy Rails App (But You Can)

Stephan Hagemann

Packwerk promised modularity in a gem install — but good architecture doesn’t come from `bundle add`. We’ll look at how Packwerk’s story reflects deeper truths about software design, organizational habits, and how we sometimes ask our tools to do our growing for us. This is a call to arms (and to our love of the craft) for teams that want to scale Rails applications by scaling their understanding first.

Building Cloud Data Infrastructure with Ruby

Evgeny Li

Ruby isn't just for web development. Discover why Ruby is a great choice for building and automating modern cloud data infrastructure. Learn real-world lessons from BemiDB, a data analytics platform. You'll gain practical skills and be inspired to leverage Ruby for your next infrastructure project!

From code to customers: technical marketing for people who'd rather be building

Colleen Schnettler

Too many brilliant Rails developers build great products and then quit when customers don't appear. They're missing one skill: marketing. I want to change that. The Rails renaissance is here (huge thanks to Evil Martians!), and I believe helping Rails builders become successful entrepreneurs is crucial for our community's future. This might be the conference's most impactful talk. Why me? I'm a technical founder who's built three startups and now coach technical founders on marketing. I've lived this journey and help others navigate it daily.

Operating rails: what about after you deploy?

André Arko

Running a web service requires you to do so many things that aren't included in any programming books or tutorials. We need more developers able to ship services that work, rather than expecting each developer to figure out the entire list by trial and error, one at a time, by themselves. Blog posts with individual tips about isolated problems don't cut it either, because no one is creating a field survey or a checklist of the overall process and making sure developers are aware of and ready for what they'll face in production.

The Thin CLIent Approach

Jeremy Evans

This presentation will discuss a novel approach to CLI development, where the command line arguments are passed to an endpoint instead of being parsed by the client program, and the advantages and disadvantages doing so. It will discuss the development of a new command line argument parsing library, cross compiling client line programs, and how this approach enabled usage of the CLI without installation, by integrating support for it into a web application.

Shipping Solo with Rails 8: Building Dada the African Menopause Companion

Naijeria Toweett

This talk shows what Ruby and Rails do best: enabling solo developers to build meaningful, user-focused apps with speed, clarity, and joy. I've spent 15 years in the NGO and social impact space, where I've seen huge amounts of money wasted on overbuilt tech that communities didn't need. I'm now using Rails 8, open-source tools, and user-driven design to build DADA — a real product for a deeply underserved audience. I'm living proof that Ruby still empowers builders to move fast, stay lean, and create software that actually helps people.

The Role of Software Design in an AI World

Sarah Mei

Ruby devs, like all devs, are nervous about their worth in an AI world. This talk gives them reason to be optimistic, & will start to open for them a vista in which they are enhanced by AI rather than being replaced. For 10+ years I've spoken, written, & thought deeply about software design. For the last 6 months I've worked with code assistants to see what they can do in real Rails codebases - not new projects or toy apps. I've got some initial conclusions that are worth sharing widely.

How to open-source your Rails startup

Sam Poder

As Rails developers, we develop on the shoulders of giants. We can do what we can do because of the work of thousands of open source contributors; I want to encourage more developers to give back through open sourcing their work. This also isn't a subject talked about often and having just taken a codebase from open to closed source, I can offer a unique perspective. I remember struggling with a lack of resources of the subject when we started the project. Hopefully this talk can make it easier for the next person who open sources their codebase.

Open source as a business with Sidekiq

Mike Perham

Learn how to build a successful open source business model from the creator of Sidekiq.

Open Mic

Our tradition at SF Ruby is a session where anyone can grab a mic for a couple minutes to share their announcements, news, or ask a question.

Scaling Rails to two million MySQL requests per second

Eugene Kenny

I whistle stop tour of various patterns and techniques Intercom's monolith used to go from rails new intercom to comfortably scaling to over two million MySQL requests per second. Expect practical takeaways on replication, sharding, caching, connection routing, and upgrade strategy, plus the bumps and trade‑offs we hit along the way.

Ruby Startup Demos

Ruby Startup Demos

Golden Gate Bridge Bike Tour & Alcatraz Ferry Ride

This 8-mile guided tour with Blazing Saddles will run from 10am-1pm. We'll leave from the bike shop 3 blocks away from the conference center. It includes stops at the Presidio and a ride across the Golden Gate Bridge over to Sausalito, followed by a 30-minute ferry ride back which goes right past Alcatraz and drops you off at Pier 41 near Fisherman's Wharf. You can choose from electric or regular bike and the rental comes with helmet, lock, etc and you can keep the bike for up to 24 hours. Total cost with rental, ferry ride, and tax is $94.71 for regular bike or $116.55 for electric bike. That price includes a 20% booking discount when you book online. Read the Luma event description for more details and or email the organizer kane@fixture.media with any questions.

Community Day Event: claim it!

Day 3 is open to unofficial community events like hikes, museum walks, tours of the city, and more. Share your event idea and join fellow Rubyists for a day of community activities!