mruby 🤝 Ruby In my ongoing exploration of non-deterministic agents running along side deterministic code, I figured I'd see if I could use RubyLLM to run arbitrary ruby code inside of an mruby sandbox within the same process. It works! beautifulruby.com/code/enclave

Enclave

An MRuby sandbox for running arbitrary Ruby code from LLMs

beautifulruby.com

Running AI agents as Unix executables that self-improve has been one of my wilder ideas lately. You can pipe agents: `think weather | think song` The agent eventually writes a determinative script after enough runs for simple programs. It’s as secure as a browser too. thinkingscript.com

Self-improving AI Executables

Write programs in your own words. Run them in a secure sandbox. Install them like any other tool.

thinkingscript.com

Incorrectly sized Open Graph images commonly crop heads & logos in weird places. In this video I debug YC's redesigned site with og.plus/tools to show how to identify & fix incorrectly sized images. Of course sites that use og.plus don't have this problem because images are optimized per network.

YCombinator.com Open Graph analysis: solutions to common problems with image sizes

YouTube video by OpenGraph+

youtu.be

I got tired of seeing people complain “RSpec and factories takes 14 min to run, minitest and takes 5s” so I’m starting to chip away at it. First order of business: created FixtureBot after figuring out I use FactoryBot not because of factories, but because I like the syntax. Might try sus next.

Don't throw the specs out with the factories

FixtureBot gives you the speed of fixtures with the syntax of factories

beautifulruby.com

Second edition of creating Plan objects in Superfeature to display plan tables in a SaaS I’m working on, og.plus. The objects can upgrade to other plans, control downgrade flow, set prices in stripe, require payment, and more. Next one I’ll cover Feature & Limit classes.

Superfeature Plan

A Ruby DSL for defining SaaS pricing plans and features

beautifulruby.com

First YouTube video for OpenGraph+ about a macOS app I'm building to design and debug Open Graph images. Still waiting on Apple to approve the thing in Test Flight.

OpenGraph+ macOS app demo: debug your tags live

YouTube video by OpenGraph+

youtu.be

While working on OpenGraphPlus.com I got tired of how annoying it is working with full prices and discounts, particularly in views, so I created a gem with a Price object that makes it super easy to create discounts and have them display properly on your site. Next Black Friday will be easy! 😅

Superfeature Price

A Ruby object for working with prices and discounts

beautifulruby.com

My first end-to-end demo of og.plus! You can finally get a sense for how it will integrate into websites to generate an Open Graph image per page, and you can control it all with CSS, meta tags, and HTML cache headers. As always, Rails is my first integration: opengraphplus.com/docs/rails 💅

How the OpenGraph+ Rails app uses OpenGraph+ to render Open Graph tags for itself

YouTube video by BeautifulRuby․com

youtu.be

I've been heads down for the past month cranking on og.plus, and for the first time ever I found LLMs were actually useful for creating production-grade apps, but not how you think ... and a far cry from "vibe coding". I share thoughts in the video & discuss the workflow I used to ship quality.

How I used Claude Code to build OpenGraph+, a Rails Open Graph generator

YouTube video by BeautifulRuby․com

youtu.be

I've started using ChatGPT's Atlas browser to critique first-draft landing pages to find obvious errors and issues on og.plus. Overall I've found its useful to map out "completeness", but it will try to make you run in circles, is kinda slow, and requires copy & paste to work with other agents.

Critique landing pages with ChatGPT Atlas

YouTube video by BeautifulRuby․com

youtu.be

Girl Scout cookies and Phlex on Rails!? I'm sending people 4 boxes to any address in the US (can't ship i18n 🫠) for people who buy the course at beautifulruby.com/phlex After you purchase, I'll reach out to get your address & cookie preferences (real cookies 🍪, not browser cookies)

Girl Scouts on Rails: Walk & Talk

YouTube video by BeautifulRuby․com

youtube.com

Phree Phlex videos are back! This one shows how to cram lots of Phlex components into one file with nested classes and endless method. I also kept the Black Friday deal going for a couple more days.

Inheritance

This video course teaches you how to use Phlex to build high quality Rails frontends that you can use with existing Erb apps or go all-in and build from the ground up with components. Phlex brings san...

beautifulruby.com

I ditched the 10 minute time-box for the videos so I wouldn’t have to be as rushed.

BeautifulRuby.com@beautifulruby.com · 8mo ago

37 signals released the source code for their latest Rails SaaS called Fizzy. I did a source code read through video and wrote about it. I think I found 2 potential security issues along the way too. Enjoy! beautifulruby.com/code/fizzy

Last Ruby deals push, this time for Cyber Monday! I picked up a few more deals and listed them at the bottom of Friday’s list. There’s some great deals on software & lots of discounted courses if you have some training budget left in the tank this year. beautifulruby.com/articles/rub...

2025 Ruby Cyber Monday & Black Friday Deals

Save money on Ruby books, courses, licenses, & software

beautifulruby.com

Gearing up for one last push on Cyber Monday! I picked up a few more deals that I put on the page. If there's any more please LMK today so I can include in my final Ruby deal push.

Brad Gessler@bradgessler.com · 8mo ago

I collected all Ruby Black Friday deals I could find & posted them in one spot. Highlights include: $130 off @beautifulruby.com Phlex on Rails course $81 off @gorails.com annual subscription +20% @joemasilotti.com Hotwire native content Lots of @pragprog.com deals Enjoy! 🦃🔥💰

I collected all Ruby Black Friday deals I could find & posted them in one spot. Highlights include: $130 off @beautifulruby.com Phlex on Rails course $81 off @gorails.com annual subscription +20% @joemasilotti.com Hotwire native content Lots of @pragprog.com deals Enjoy! 🦃🔥💰

2025 Ruby Black Friday Deals

Save money on Ruby books, courses, and software

beautifulruby.com

I've got a few more in the queue from the SF Ruby Conf. I'm definitely going to be shooting more of these in different locations with other Rubyists and people who are building cool stuff.

BeautifulRuby.com@beautifulruby.com · 9mo ago

During the @sfruby.com conference I got a chance to walk with @adrianthedev.com, founder of @avohq.io, and talk about the business of selling self-hosted, installed software to developers. Turns out it's pretty challenging, but there's some upsides if you can figure out how to do it. 💪

Where are Ruby devs looking for Black Friday deals this season? I’ve got an $80 off BFD for the @beautifulruby.com Phlex on Rails course and want to get it in front of more Ruby developers. beautifulruby.com/phlex

Phlex on Rails

Build amazing user interfaces in Rails with Phlex 💪

beautifulruby.com

Kicking off a BFD (Black Friday Deal) for @beautifulruby.com! Between now and Sunday, December 7, 2025 you can save over 20% off the course with an $80 coupon. To claim the deal, use the normal Stripe checkout flow at beautifulruby.com/phlex#invest

Phlex on Rails

Build amazing user interfaces in Rails with Phlex 💪

beautifulruby.com

Brad Gessler@bradgessler.com · 9mo ago

Today's phree @beautifulruby.com Phlex on Rails video reviews the most fundamental concept of @phlex.fun, creating HTML tags & attributes. One of the most powerful things about Phlex is how certain attributes, like class, style, and data, handle hashes & arrays, making Phlex great for components.

Today's phree @beautifulruby.com Phlex on Rails video reviews the most fundamental concept of @phlex.fun, creating HTML tags & attributes. One of the most powerful things about Phlex is how certain attributes, like class, style, and data, handle hashes & arrays, making Phlex great for components.

Tags, attributes, & text

This video course teaches you how to use Phlex to build high quality Rails frontends that you can use with existing Erb apps or go all-in and build from the ground up with components. Phlex brings san...

beautifulruby.com

What are some good Ruby podcasts that would want their audience to hear me talk about Phlex, Superform, Supermail, etc?

If you're wondering how I packaged up Ruby code into binaries people can run on Linux and macOS, Tebako is it. In this RTSFC I walk through the internals of Tebako, which is a lot of scripts that compile ruby, download gems into a package, and set entry points for your code.

Portable macOS, Linux, and Windows binaries with Tebako: Read the Friendly Source Code

YouTube video by BeautifulRuby․com

youtu.be

Today's free Phlex on Rails video is all about rendering, which is very polymorphic in Phlex. Partials, strings, values, components, component classes, and collections all Just Work™ when passed into the `render` method.

Rendering

This video course teaches you how to use Phlex to build high quality Rails frontends that you can use with existing Erb apps or go all-in and build from the ground up with components. Phlex brings san...

beautifulruby.com

Today's free Phlex on Rails video kicks off Unit 2, starting with the basics of a Phlex component!💪 If you're a Rails developer that's never heard of Phlex, you'll want to follow along this week as I premiere Unit 2.

Phlex is Ruby

This video course teaches you how to use Phlex to build high quality Rails frontends that you can use with existing Erb apps or go all-in and build from the ground up with components. Phlex brings san...

beautifulruby.com

Today's free Phlex on Rails video is the last in the introduction unit, "Why Components?" If you've got some training budget remaining this year, here's a $50 off checkout link beautifulruby.com/courses/phle...

Why components?

This video course teaches you how to use Phlex to build high quality Rails frontends that you can use with existing Erb apps or go all-in and build from the ground up with components. Phlex brings san...

beautifulruby.com

Today’s free @beautifulruby.com Phlex on Rails video covers how the trio of Rails, Phlex, & Hotwire makes a productive framework for quickly building and shipping web apps. 💪🚞🔌 It’s geared more for people who are less familiar with the Rails stack. beautifulruby.com/phlex/overvi...

Why Rails?

This video course teaches you how to use Phlex to build high quality Rails frontends that you can use with existing Erb apps or go all-in and build from the ground up with components. Phlex brings san...

beautifulruby.com

There's 50 days until Christmas and I have 45 Phlex videos. How about a Phlex on Rails video advent calendar? I'll do my best to post some videos from the Phlex course starting with "Why Phlex?" since the intro video is free. This one compares to ViewComponent if you're curious. Follow along!

Why Phlex?

This video course teaches you how to use Phlex to build high quality Rails frontends that you can use with existing Erb apps or go all-in and build from the ground up with components. Phlex brings san...

beautifulruby.com

I wrote about how pre-sold $13,000 worth of Phlex on Rails video course, some surprises I had along the way, open questions I have around the entire concept, and where I'd like to take @beautifulruby.com now that the first video course has been fully launched. 🚀

Beautiful Ruby: First Update

Pre-sold $13,000 of Phlex on Rails video course

beautifulruby.com

Has anybody used this? I'd personally be reluctant to use it in a project, which sounds crazy given how I'm a big fan of Phlex. For me the difference is @phlex.fun is barely an abstraction and stays "close the the HTML". Opal had a lot going on, but I couldn't tell that's because of JS or Opal.

BeautifulRuby.com@beautifulruby.com · 9mo ago

Did you know there's a project called Opal that makes it possible to write JavaScript in Ruby? I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not, but it won a Ruby award so I decided to dive in and Read the Friendly Source Code. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtRO...

I wrote about the designing the perfect type signature syntax in Ruby.