RailsForge

Zero-Ruby Rails Bootstrapper

Create production-ready Rails applications without installing Ruby on your machine. The only requirement is Docker — everything else is handled automatically inside containers.

Overview

RailsForge lets you generate and run Rails applications in a fully containerized environment. No need to install Ruby, Rails, PostgreSQL, or Redis locally. Just fork this template, run the generator, and start coding.

Key benefit: You don't need Ruby installed on your system. Docker handles everything.

Features

• No Ruby installation required — Docker handles everything
• Latest Ruby auto-detected from Docker Hub at project creation
• Docker & Docker Compose for consistent development environment
• PostgreSQL as the default database (with PostGIS support)
• Redis for caching and background jobs
• Interactive project generator with options for:
  • Database (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite)
  • CSS framework (Tailwind, Bootstrap, Bulma, etc.)
  • JavaScript approach (Import maps, ESBuild, Webpack, Bun)
  • API-only mode
  • Test framework configuration
• Development helper script (run) for common tasks
• Production-ready Dockerfile generated from Rails and optimized with multi-stage builds

Requirements

• Docker (the only requirement — Ruby is not needed!)
• Docker Compose

Quick Start

1. Fork or clone this repository

2. Run the Rails generator:

   ./rails-new

3. The script will automatically detect the latest stable Ruby version from Docker Hub and generate your Rails app inside Docker

4. Follow the interactive prompts to configure your new Rails app

5. Navigate to your new app and start developing:

   cd your-app-name
   ./run build    # Build Docker images
   ./run up       # Start development server

6. Open your browser: http://localhost:3000

That's it! No Ruby installation needed.

Available Commands

The ./run script provides convenient shortcuts for common tasks:

Docker Operations

• ./run build - Build Docker images
• ./run up - Start all containers
• ./run down - Stop containers
• ./run logs - View container logs
• ./run cli - Enter CLI container

Rails Commands

• ./run rails <command> - Run any Rails command
• ./run console - Start Rails console
• ./run routes - Show routes
• ./run g <generator> - Run generators

Database

• ./run db:migrate - Run migrations
• ./run db:rollback - Rollback migrations
• ./run db:reset - Reset database
• ./run psql - Connect to PostgreSQL

Testing

• ./run test - Run test suite

Cleanup

• ./run clean - Remove stopped containers and volumes
• ./run clean:all - Remove everything including images

Project Structure

.
├── rails-new              # Interactive Rails project generator
├── run                    # Development helper script
├── Dockerfile.development # Development Docker image
├── docker-compose.yml     # Services configuration
├── .env                   # Environment variables template
└── .dockerignore          # Docker build exclusions

Configuration

Environment Variables

The .env file contains default configuration:

• UID / GID - User/group IDs (match host user on Linux)
• POSTGRES_USER / POSTGRES_PASSWORD - Database credentials
• DATABASE_URL - PostgreSQL connection string
• REDIS_URL - Redis connection string

Customization

When you run ./rails-new, the script will:

1. Detect the latest stable Ruby version from Docker Hub automatically
2. Update Dockerfiles with the detected Ruby version
3. Build the base Docker image
4. Generate a new Rails application with your chosen options
5. Copy Docker configuration files into the project
6. Update all configurations with your app name and Ruby version
7. Configure the database to use environment variables

Ruby Version

The project automatically detects and uses the latest stable Ruby version available on Docker Hub at the moment of project creation. This means:

• If Ruby 3.5 is released tomorrow, new projects will use it automatically
• No need to manually update version numbers in the template
• The detected version is pinned in the generated Dockerfiles for reproducibility

Production Deployment

The Dockerfile.production is automatically generated from Rails' default Dockerfile and optimized for production use:

• Multi-stage build for smaller image size
• Jemalloc for reduced memory usage
• Non-root user for security
• Precompiled assets
• Thruster server by default

Build for production:

docker build -f Dockerfile.production -t your-app .

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Submit a pull request

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

Resources

• Ruby on Rails Guides
• Docker Documentation
• PostgreSQL Documentation