Welcome to the Slop Factory

Jeff Dickey is back on Remote Ruby, and he's been busy! Andrew and Chris catch up with Jeff to discuss the latest improvements to mise, including precompiled Ruby builds, automatic tool updates, and dotfile management. Jeff also introduces some of his newest projects, including packslip, a new standard designed to make software distribution more secure, and jactionlint, his modernized GitHub Actions linter. The conversation explores everything from managing secrets with fnox and cleaning up massive Rust build caches to running your own CI infrastructure at home. They also dive into AI-assisted development, the future of Ruby performance, and how AI is changing the way open source software gets built and maintained.LinksChris Oliver XAndrew Mason BlueskyDavid Hill LinkedInJudoscale- Remote Ruby listener giftJeff Dickey WebsiteJeff Dickey XEntire Remote Ruby-Episode 341: Jeff Dickey on Mise, Precompiled Rubies, and much moremise Omarchyactionlintpackslipjactionlintfnoxmr boxingtontakusage-rs aquahkHoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleMake your deployments bulletproof with autoscaling that just works.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Chris Oliver X/TwitterAndrew Mason X/TwitterJason Charnes X/Twitter

On this episode, Chris, Andrew, and David dive into the rapidly changing world of AI-assisted development, Ruby performance, and the future of building software. They kick things off with AI-powered coding workflows before exploring the Campfire benchmarking controversy and the exciting possibilities of Roundhouse, which could dramatically improve Ruby application performance. Andrew shares his experience launching a new AI agent inside Podia, including the challenges of getting its MCP integration approved by OpenAI, managing AI costs, and testing security. The conversation shifts to optimizing GitHub Actions, reducing CI expenses, and whether developers should start hosting their own runners. They also speculate about the future of all-in-one development platforms and how AI might reshape everything from writing code to deploying applications. Hit download now!LinksChris Oliver XAndrew Mason BlueskyDavid Hill LinkedInJudoscale- Remote Ruby listener giftWhat’s New in RubyGems/Bundler 4.1, Part 1: override and prune (by SHIBATA Hiroshi)Roundhouse-GitHubJP Camara XMatt Swanson XRWXBlacksmithDiggerStreet Fighter Gears of War: E-Day (game)AnyPS5-GitHubHoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleMake your deployments bulletproof with autoscaling that just works.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Chris Oliver X/TwitterAndrew Mason X/TwitterJason Charnes X/Twitter

Fresh off Rails World 2026, Chris, Andrew, David, and returning guest John Athayde unpack the surprisingly emotional conversation surrounding AI, Ruby, Rails, and the future of programming. What starts as a discussion about Spinel, Roundhouse, Rust, and Rails performance quickly turns into a much bigger question: what happens to developers when writing code is no longer the main job? They dig into AI-assisted development, changing ideas around craftsmanship and creativity, the growing importance of testing and CI, and whether frameworks like Rails become more valuable in an AI-driven world. They also reflect on the mood at Rails World, autonomous cars, AI-generated design, and why the real value of conferences may increasingly be simply getting developers together in the same room. Hit download now!LinksChris Oliver XAndrew Mason BlueskyDavid Hill LinkedInJudoscale- Remote Ruby listener giftJohn Athayde WebsiteJohn Athayde XSanket Sahu X Post- GeekyAnts landing pageSpinel- Ruby AOT Compiler-GitHubRails World 2026 Talks HoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleMake your deployments bulletproof with autoscaling that just works.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Chris Oliver X/TwitterAndrew Mason X/TwitterJason Charnes X/Twitter

Recorded live from Rails World 2026, Andrew, Chris, David, Jason Charnes, and eventually Andy Croll, unpack the strange mood surrounding this year’s conference. Much of the conversation centers on DHH’s keynote and the increasingly agent-driven future of software development: if AI can write, debug, and even understand the code for us, what happens to the value of frameworks, developer expertise, documentation, and even Ruby itself? They also dig into Hotwire, Active Search, Herb, Active Job Continuations, security concerns around AI-generated software, and what the Ruby community might rally around if the language becomes less central to how developers identify themselves. And because it’s Rails World, there’s plenty of barbecue, conference chaos, bad jokes, and Andy Croll crashing the podcast. Hit download now!LinksChris Oliver XAndrew Mason BlueskyDavid Hill LinkedInJudoscale- Remote Ruby listener giftJason Charnes WebsiteAndy Croll WebsiteBuzzsproutTerry Black’s BBQBurnt End BBQPlanetScaleRubyMineAppSignalRails World 2026 Talks (YouTube)HoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.BuzzSproutPodcast Hosting Made Easy.JudoscaleMake your deployments bulletproof with autoscaling that just works.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Chris Oliver X/TwitterAndrew Mason X/TwitterJason Charnes X/Twitter

Andrew and Chris are back with a packed episode covering everything from Rails World anticipation and Rails 8.2 to security, Ractors, AI-assisted development, and some ambitious new Ruby tooling. They dig into RubyGems recent spam-publishing incident and Trusted Publishing, look at Shopify’s push toward Ractor-safe Rails, and explore Roundhouse, a project experimenting with compiling Rails applications into entirely different target languages. They also talk about using Claude for project planning and open source maintenance, new approaches to AI beyond traditional LLMs, the surprisingly inexpensive architecture behind Turbopuffer, PlanetScale’s new TIN search extension, and Andrew’s move from a small Sinatra deployment service to Cloudflare Workers. Hit download now! LinksChris Oliver XAndrew Mason BlueskyDavid Hill LinkedInJudoscale- Remote Ruby listener giftAutomating Ruby Gem Releases with GitHub Actions (by Andrew Mason)Marc Benioff MOGGED Sam Altman (John Smith X Post)@graphtheory X PostRactor-age Rails: A Hot-To Guide (Rails at Scale) RoundhouseIntroducing System One Models & Jev (TypeSafe AI blog post)TurbopufferBen Dicken X post (on inverted indexes)Planet Scale: Introducing TIN: full-text search for PostgresCloudflare WorkersHoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleMake your deployments bulletproof with autoscaling that just works.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Chris Oliver X/TwitterAndrew Mason X/TwitterJason Charnes X/Twitter

Chris, Andrew, and David are back with a conversation that starts with Rails World plans. They break down APIs, webhooks, and persistent connections, using everything from thermostats to Stripe to explain how systems communicate and recover when things go wrong. From there, Chris shares what caught his eye in PlanetScale’s new Postgres sharding work, before the conversation shifts heavily toward AI-assisted programming, where the tools are surprisingly capable one minute and making baffling architectural decisions the next. They also explore how AI is changing Chris’s work on Jumpstart and Hatchbox, improving Rails actionable errors, tackling years-old Android bugs, and potentially reshaping how open source projects are maintained. Press download now! LinksChris Oliver XAndrew Mason BlueskyDavid Hill LinkedInJudoscale- Remote Ruby listener giftIntroducing Neki (PlanetScale blog post)The lifecycle of a sharded Postgres query (blog post)PlanetScale BlogRails is built for AI. Agents on Rails: Stage 2. Can a model ship a feature? (Posted by Svyatoslav Kryukov, Artur Petrov, Alexander Baygeldin)Surfguard-GitHubOmacheeMeat ProxyHoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleMake your deployments bulletproof with autoscaling that just works.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Chris Oliver X/TwitterAndrew Mason X/TwitterJason Charnes X/Twitter

Ryan Castillo returns to the show to catch everyone up on what’s changed since his last appearance…and a lot has changed. Ryan explains why he and his co-founder moved on from their web application firewall Wafris and built Knowatoa, a platform focused on helping companies understand how their brands appear in AI-powered search. From there, the conversation expands into GEO and AI search visibility, multi-agent coding workflows, AI skills as the future of content, and when developers should or shouldn’t delegate work to AI. Chris also gets candid about Hatchbox’s recent pricing increase, the financial pressure behind the decision, and why talking directly with customers may be just as important as shipping the next feature. Hit download now! LinksChris Oliver XAndrew Mason BlueskyDavid Hill LinkedInJudoscale- Remote Ruby listener giftRyan Castillo XRyan Castillo LinkedInKnowatoaWafrisHatchboxHow I Use Cursor by @potetoSkills from A Smart Bear by Jason CohenRocky Mountain Ruby-September 28-29, 2026, Boulder, ColoradoRails World, Sept 23-24, 2026, Austin, TexasUpcoming Ruby Events CalendarHoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleMake your deployments bulletproof with autoscaling that just works.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Chris Oliver X/TwitterAndrew Mason X/TwitterJason Charnes X/Twitter

This week, Chris, Andrew, and David dig into a packed mix of Rails news, developer tooling, and the increasingly complicated role AI is playing in everyday coding. They talk about Herb making its way into Rails, the realities of Rails upgrades and stacked PRs, new approaches to Git hosting and object storage, and how Rails is being evaluated in the age of AI agents. They also get into improvements coming to Action Text, Podia’s approach to “flavored” Markdown, the never-ending frustrations of HTML email, and why tools like ArchSpec and Rubydex could become especially useful as more code is generated by LLMs. Hit download now to hear more!LinksChris Oliver XAndrew Mason BlueskyDavid Hill LinkedInJudoscale- Remote Ruby listener giftRails World-Sept 23-24, 2026, Austin, TXAdd Herb as an HTML -aware ERB implementation #58552 (GitHub pull request)turbopufferAgents on Rails: The LLM Benchmark Project (Rails Foundation)Agents on Rails : The First Benchmark ReportTiptapArchSpecRubydexHoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleMake your deployments bulletproof with autoscaling that just works.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Chris Oliver X/TwitterAndrew Mason X/TwitterJason Charnes X/Twitter

Andrew and David catch up on everything from wild weather and the upcoming Rails World conference to Andrew’s latest deep dive into MCPs (Model Context Protocols). Andrew shares what he’s learned while building an MCP for a Rails side project, including choosing the official Ruby MCP SDK, discovering the limitations of resources versus tools, and wrestling with OAuth and Doorkeeper authorization. They also look ahead to Rails World in Austin, highlighting talks on Active Search, Ractors, Herb, Action Text, Solid Cable, custom Rails generators, and appropriately enough MCPs. Links:Chris Oliver XAndrew Mason BlueskyDavid Hill LinkedInJudoscale- Remote Ruby listener giftThe Ruby on Rails Podcast-Episode 548-MCP + Generators with Andy Andrea and Rachael Wright-MunnMCP serverMCP Ruby SDK-GitHubDoorkeeper-GitHubRails World- Sept 23-24, 2026, Austin, TexasRails World Talks Herb-GitHubReActionViewSolid Cable-GitHubSponsors:HoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleMake your deployments bulletproof with autoscaling that just works.Chris Oliver X/TwitterAndrew Mason X/TwitterJason Charnes X/Twitter

Ernesto Tagwerker joins Chris, Andrew, and David, to talk about how AI is changing Rails development, consulting, and the way teams approach upgrades and maintenance. They discuss using Claude Code for Rails upgrades, the risks of relying too heavily on AI-generated tests and code, and why strong development standards are becoming even more important. The conversation also explores code quality, open AI models, team consistency, and how developers can use AI to work more efficiently without giving up the experience and judgment that good software still requires. Start listening now! LinksChris Oliver XAndrew Mason BlueskyDavid Hill LinkedInJudoscale- Remote Ruby listener giftErnesto Tagwerker LinkedInErnesto Tagwerker GitHubFastRuby.ioOmbuLabsRemote Ruby-Episode 100!!  Upgrading Rails with Ernesto TagwerkerBlastoff Rails 2026- Fewer Tests, More Confidence by Ifat Ribon (YouTube)Rails Upgrade Assistant Skill (OmbuLabs Claude Code Skill)FastRuby-Our Rails Upgrade Methodology as Claude SkillsMutant-GitHubPhilly.rb MeetupPhilly.rb XHoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleMake your deployments bulletproof with autoscaling that just works.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Chris Oliver X/TwitterAndrew Mason X/TwitterJason Charnes X/Twitter