This repository aggregates over 200 actively maintained, open-source production Ruby on Rails applications and engines. It serves as a comprehensive resource for developers and researchers seeking to understand real-world architectural patterns and solutions. By centralizing these codebases, it dramatically enhances the utility of AI coding agents, enabling rapid, cross-repository analysis of complex implementation details, thereby accelerating learning and architectural research.

How It Works

The project functions by cloning numerous external Rails repositories as Git submodules within a single parent repository. This structure allows AI coding agents, augmented with a dedicated real-world-rails skill, to efficiently query, read, and cross-reference code across all 200+ applications. This approach bypasses manual code grepping, offering a powerful and time-saving method for researching diverse solutions to common development challenges in production environments.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Installation: Clone the repository (git clone git@github.com:steveclarke/real-world-rails.git), navigate into the directory (cd real-world-rails/), and run the setup script (bin/setup).
• Prerequisites: Git Large File Storage (LFS) must be installed (https://git-lfs.com).
• Resource Footprint: Requires approximately 25 GB of disk space for all submodules.
• Documentation: A full list of included applications and engines is available in repos.md.

Highlighted Details

• Aggregates 200+ production-grade, open-source Rails applications and engines.
• Facilitates AI-driven research into architectural patterns (e.g., multi-tenancy, background jobs, authentication) across diverse codebases.
• Includes a specialized AI agent skill (steveclarke/real-world-rails) for enhanced code analysis capabilities.
• Features a git-ignored analyses/ directory for users to store personal research notes and findings.

Maintenance & Community

This project is an actively maintained continuation of a previous effort. Submodules are automatically updated weekly via a GitHub Action that opens a pull request. Users can contribute by opening an issue with a GitHub URL or by using the bin/add script followed by a commit and pull request. Related "Real World" collections for Nuxt, Ruby Apps, Sinatra, and Django are also available.

Licensing & Compatibility

The README does not specify the license for the parent repository or the aggregated submodules. This lack of explicit licensing information presents a significant caveat for potential adoption, particularly concerning commercial use or integration into proprietary systems.

Limitations & Caveats

The repository requires a substantial 25 GB of disk space due to the extensive use of Git submodules. Initial setup and updates can be time-consuming. Crucially, the absence of clear licensing information for the aggregated codebases poses a risk and requires further investigation before adoption.