[dotenv] Loaded comment gets added to routes annotations

[sebaherrera07]

I am running annotaterb (4.20.0) on my Ruby (3.4.6) and Rails (8.1.0) web application. I am also running dotenv (3.1.8).

Any time I annotate the routes with bundle exec annotaterb routes, the annotations end up with some stuff that shouldn't be there. Previously, it was:

# == Route Map
#
# [dotenv] Loaded �[33m.env�[0m
# Routes for application:
...

But now it is:

# == Route Map
#
# [dotenv] Loaded �[33m.env�[0m
# W, [2025-10-28T10:51:14.428860 #11045]  WARN -- : Generating image variants require the image_processing gem. Please add `gem "image_processing", "~> 1.2"` to your Gemfile or set `config.active_storage.variant_processor = :disabled`.
# Routes for application:
...

Any ideas what may be happening, or how to prevent this?

My .annotaterb.yml file contains:

---
:position: before
:position_in_additional_file_patterns: before
:position_in_class: before
:position_in_factory: before
:position_in_fixture: before
:position_in_routes: before
:position_in_serializer: before
:position_in_test: before
:classified_sort: true
:exclude_controllers: true
:exclude_factories: false
:exclude_fixtures: false
:exclude_helpers: true
:exclude_scaffolds: true
:exclude_serializers: false
:exclude_sti_subclasses: false
:exclude_tests: true
:force: false
:format_markdown: false
:format_rdoc: false
:format_yard: false
:frozen: false
:ignore_model_sub_dir: false
:ignore_unknown_models: false
:include_version: false
:show_check_constraints: false
:show_complete_foreign_keys: false
:show_foreign_keys: true
:show_indexes: true
:simple_indexes: false
:sort: false
:timestamp: false
:trace: false
:with_comment: true
:with_column_comments: true
:with_table_comments: true
:active_admin: false
:command:
:debug: false
:hide_default_column_types: ''
:hide_limit_column_types: ''
:ignore_columns:
:ignore_routes:
:models: true
:routes: false
:skip_on_db_migrate: false
:target_action: :do_annotations
:wrapper:
:wrapper_close:
:wrapper_open:
:classes_default_to_s: []
:additional_file_patterns: []
:model_dir:
- app/models
:require: []
:root_dir:
- ''

[OdenTakashi]

Hi @sebaherrera07, thanks for reporting this! 🙏

Could you check if running rails routes directly produces the same output, like this:

# [dotenv] Loaded .env
# W, [2025-10-28T10:51:14.428860 #11045]  WARN -- : Generating image variants require the image_processing gem. Please add `gem "image_processing", "~> 1.2"` to your Gemfile or set `config.active_storage.variant_processor = :disabled`.

If you see the same output there, it’s likely because AnnotateRb runs the rails routes command internally using backticks (rails routes).
When Rails boots up, it prints messages from gems like dotenv or any runtime warnings (like the Active Storage one), and since AnnotateRb doesn’t currently filter that output, those lines end up in the route annotations.

This might be a bug or an unintended behavior in AnnotateRb.

[OdenTakashi]

@sebaherrera07
How is this issue going for you since then?

[sebaherrera07]

@OdenTakashi oops, I thought I had already replied, my bad.

Yep, rails routes outputs the same there. Understood, we can close the issue 👍