--- title: "Why Ruby still feels like home" publication: "Ruby Weekly" issue: 801 published_at: "2026-05-21" canonical_url: "https://rubyweekly.com/issues/801" --- Plus Matz in a game, Ruby 4.0.5, avoiding AI burnout, and Euruko's CFP is open. #​801 β€” May 21, 2026 [Read on the Web](https://rubyweekly.com/issues/801) Together with [![OmbuLabs\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/c_fill,g_auto,e_trim,w_1280,h_222/e_make_transparent/co_white,e_outline:17/irh37oeuoejmp6bpwa9l.png)](https://go.ombulabs.com/125) Ruby Weekly [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/kffit301ol89cjdtov9l.jpg)](https://island94.org/2026/05/one-year-of-ruby-on-rails-configuration) πŸ› οΈ [One Year of Ruby on Rails Configuration](https://island94.org/2026/05/one-year-of-ruby-on-rails-configuration) β€” The creator of [GoodJob](https://github.com/bensheldon/good_job) shares a tour of the monkey patches, extensions, and appwide behaviors that have accumulated in his Rails app’s `/config` directory. It’s _heavy_ on examples and things you might want to steal be inspired by. Ben Sheldon [Ruby 4.0.5 Released](https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2026/05/20/ruby-4-0-5-released/) β€” An off-schedule release to address a critical use-after-free [race condition in the `getaddrinfo` timeout handler](https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2026/05/20/getaddrinfo-cve-2026-46727/). It also resolves a build system regression under the C locale introduced in 4.0.4. Takashi Kokubun [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/c_limit,w_480,h_480,q_auto/copm/25b971ee.png)](https://go.ombulabs.com/125) [πŸ€– Claude Skills Built Around Your Engineering Process](https://go.ombulabs.com/125) β€” We created an [open-source Claude Code skill for Rails upgrades](https://github.com/ombulabs/claude-code_rails-upgrade-skill?utm_source=cooperpress&utm_medium=paidplacement&utm_campaign=rw-primary-link-may-21-2026-2&utm_term=os-claude-skill&utm_content=os-claude-skill), leveraging 60,000+ hours of experience. Individual, general skills can only go so far; we build skills that understand your process. Take the next step into AI-assisted development. Custom Solutions | Ombulabs.ai sponsor **⚑️ IN BRIEF:** - [thoughtbot has joined the Ruby Alliance](https://thoughtbot.com/blog/why-thoughtbot-is-joining-the-ruby-alliance) – nothing to do with _Star Wars_ but a program announced in _Ruby Central_'s [recent reboot](https://rubycentral.org/news/a-new-chapter-for-ruby-central/#what-were-building) to allow companies to support RubyGems and the broader ecosystem. - πŸ•ΉοΈ The [DragonRuby Game Toolkit](https://dragonruby.org/) (a Ruby implementation targeted at game development) is [free for the next 24 hours](https://itch.io/s/186283/kifass-4-ancient-nameless-fun-stupid) to celebrate the start of the [Ancient & Nameless & Fun & Stupid GameJam](https://itch.io/jam/kifass-4) which runs till June 15. - πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί [Euruko 2026](https://2026.euruko.org/) takes place this September 17-18 in Brno, Czechia and [its CFP is open](https://cfp2026.euruko.org/events/euruko-2026) till June 16 if you'd like to speak. - Jerome Paul noticed [`end`-less methods can lead to endless `rescue`s](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/22077), too… πŸ—“οΈ [What is `Date::ITALY`?](http://aesthetikx.info/blog/date_italy.html) β€” If you guessed that it has something to do with Julian and Gregorian calendars, you’re right, but that’s just the start of it. A fun journey through some date/time esoterica. John DeSilva [Why Ruby Still Feels Like Home After All These Years](https://caio.ca/blog/why-ruby-still-feels-like-home) β€” A warm retrospective on why Ruby, fifteen years and several language affairs later, remains satisfying to use. Caio highlights language features like refinements, `Forwardable`, and numbered params, alongside modern tooling like Ruby LSP and Steep, and the performance ceiling YJIT raised. Caio Bianchi [Build a Fantasy Adventure Game With Rails and RCS](https://developer.vonage.com/en/blog/build-a-fantasy-adventure-game-with-rails-and-rcs?cmp=eml-api-api-gbl-cooperpress-prosp-news) β€” Step into Eldrathia! Build a branching fantasy RPG using Rails and RCS, complete with monsters, magic, and rich cards. Vonage sponsor πŸ“„ [Inbound Email in Rails Apps with Fuik](https://railsdesigner.com/actionmailbox-fuik/) – How to use the [Fuik](https://railsdesigner.com/introducing-fuik/) webhook engine to accept email webhooks from common providers. Rails Designer πŸ“„ [Ruby vs. Java vs. TypeScript for Building a Claude Cowork Plugin](https://tanin.nanakorn.com/ruby-java-typescrip-claude-docx-plugin/) – Not a positive outcome for Ruby here (Tanin likes types!) but some interesting perspectives. Tanin Nanakorn πŸ“„ [Safely Dropping Columns in Rails](https://writesoftwarewell.com/safely-drop-columns-rails-ignored-columns/) Akshay Khot πŸ›  Code & Tools [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/aomcfxm6awkjitkmadti.jpg)](https://github.com/tilo/smarter_csv/) [SmarterCSV: The Fastest End-to-End CSV Library for Ruby](https://github.com/tilo/smarter_csv/) β€” A CSV parsing and generation library that leans upon C for performance, can handle CSV parsing failures that Ruby's usual CSV library can’t, and with a nicer API too (though [migrating to SmarterCSV](https://github.com/tilo/smarter_csv/blob/main/docs/migrating_from_csv.md#the-one-line-switch) is a one-line change). The [latest release](https://github.com/tilo/smarter_csv/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md#1170-2026-05-14) adds support for non-seekable/streaming IO sources. Tilo Sloboda [Your Gemfile Doesn't Need an Analytics Database](https://www.tigerdata.com/go/trial?utm_source=content-syndication&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ruby-weekly-newsletter) β€” TimescaleDB extends the Postgres your Rails app already uses. Analytics at scale, no new stack. [$1000 credit to start](https://www.tigerdata.com/go/trial?utm_source=content-syndication&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ruby-weekly-newsletter). Tiger Data (creators of TimescaleDB) sponsor [Bundlebun: Pack Bun into Your Ruby App with No External Setup](https://yaroslav.io/posts/bundlebun-bundles-bun) β€” An approach to packaging the [Bun](https://bun.com/) JS runtime in a Ruby gem. Yaroslav explains the gem’s architecture and its integrations with Vite and ExecJS. Yaroslav Markin πŸ€– [LLM Cost Tracker: Self-Hosted LLM Cost Management for Rails](https://github.com/sergey-homenko/llm_cost_tracker) β€” A self-hosted LLM cost-tracking engine for Rails monoliths that captures token usage, latency, and costs directly from SDKs and Faraday middleware (no proxies required). Sergii Khomenko - [Bridgetown 2.2](https://www.bridgetownrb.com/release/everyone-deserves-a-wiki-bridgetown-2-2/) – The powerful Ruby site generator has added support for _wikilinks_ and uses the [Falcon](https://github.com/socketry/falcon) web server by default. - [Passenger 6.1.3](https://blog.phusion.nl/passenger-6-1-3/) – The app server adds support for Rack 3's `response_finished` post-response hooks. - [rubyfmt 0.14](https://github.com/fables-tales/rubyfmt) – The Ruby code autoformatter that Stripe recently used [to format 25 million lines of code](https://stripe.dev/blog/formatting-an-entire-25-million-line-codebase-overnight-the-rubyfmt-story). - [Peddler 5.4](https://github.com/lineofflight/peddler) – Ruby interface to the Amazon Selling Partner API (SP-API). - πŸ”Ž [Marcel 1.2](https://github.com/rails/marcel) – Identify the MIME type of files from data and extensions. - πŸ“„ [HexaPDF 1.8](https://hexapdf.gettalong.org/) – AGPL-licensed PDF creation and manipulation library. - [OmniAuth LDAP 3.0](https://github.com/omniauth/omniauth-ldap) – LDAP authentication strategy for OmniAuth. - [Comma 4.9](https://github.com/comma-csv/comma) – DSL-based CSV generator for diverse Ruby objects. πŸ“° Classifieds [Stop wasting time on slow Docker builds](https://fandf.co/4v01T1z). How to correctly structure caching for your Gemfile, multi-stage builds, and more. --- Autoscaling that doesn’t suck. [Try Judoscale](https://judoscale.com/ruby?utm_source=ruby-weekly&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=try-judoscale&utm_content=doesnt-suck) and see what all the fuss is about. --- πŸ”¬ Shipping AI code? [Undercover CI](https://undercover-ci.com) catches untested methods in your PRs before you merge. Coverage percentages won't. Free for open source. --- πŸ’Ž [Elasticsearch-quality Full-Text Search for Postgres](https://github.com/paradedb/rails-paradedb), now with native ActiveRecord support. πŸ“’ Elsewhere in the ecosystem [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/riusmckqkvidthnuvau4.jpg)](https://www.blastoffrails.com/) - πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ [Blastoff Rails](https://www.blastoffrails.com/) is a Rails conference taking place this June 11-12 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There's also [a game](https://game.blastoffrails.com/) to help promote the event featuring a 'Professor Matz' _(above)_! - A brief reminder to [take the 2026 Ruby on Rails Community Survey](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/) from Planet Argon, if you haven't yet. It only takes place every two years – here are [the results from 2024.](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2024/) - πŸ€– At Google I/O this week, Google unveiled [Modern Web Guidance](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/modern-web-guidance), a set of expert-vetted skills to guide your coding agents to build accessible, performant, and secure web experiences, e.g. `"Set up my app to begin preloading pages when users hover over important links."` - πŸ€– _Evil Martians'_ Ivan Chepurin says [AI-assisted engineers are burning out](https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/ai-assisted-engineers-are-burning-out-is-this-fine), looks at the problems involved, and suggests how to avoid such burnout. - If you've got time, you can [help TruffleRuby complete its Ruby 4.0 support.](https://github.com/truffleruby/truffleruby/issues/4231) Curated by [Peter Cooper](https://twitter.com/cooperx86) and [Glenn Goodrich](https://twitter.com/ruprict). Published by [Cooperpress](https://cooperpress.com/). [Change your email](https://rubyweekly.com/edit_subscription/*|UID|*) or [Stop getting this newsletter.](https://rubyweekly.com/leave/*|UID|*) Β© Cooper Press Ltd Β· Fairfield Enterprise Centre, Louth, LN11 0LS, United Kingdom Other weekly newsletters we publish include [Postgres Weekly](https://postgresweekly.com/), [React Status](https://react.statuscode.com/), [Frontend Focus](https://frontendfoc.us/), and [JavaScript Weekly](https://javascriptweekly.com/).