CHANGELOG.md

• Add content_type option to HTTP authentication methods.

  request_http_basic_authentication, request_http_digest_authentication, and request_http_token_authentication now accept a content_type parameter to control the Content-Type of the 401 response. The default behavior is unchanged.

  http_basic_authenticate_with(
    name: "admin", password: "secret",
    message: '{"error":"Access denied"}',
    content_type: "application/json"
  )

  Iliana Hadzhiatanasova

• Add RAILS_HOST_APP_PATH environment variable to support editor links in devcontainer/Docker environments.

  When Rails runs inside a container, file paths in error pages are container-internal paths that don't exist on the host machine. Setting RAILS_HOST_APP_PATH to the host's application path enables proper translation of container paths to host paths for editor links.

  Example in .devcontainer/devcontainer.json:

  {
    "containerEnv": {
      "EDITOR": "code",
      "RAILS_HOST_APP_PATH": "${localWorkspaceFolder}"
    }
  }

  This allows the "open in editor" feature to work correctly when developing in containers.

  Victor Cobos

• Make event_backtrace attribute in rescue_from_handled.action_controller notifications the full backtrace, when config.action_controller.rescue_from_event_backtrace is :array.

  This also affects action_controller.rescue_from_handled events.

  zzak

• Avoid loading ActionController::Live early in initializer, and introduce action_controller_live load hook.

  Adrianna Chang

• Make CSRF header-only protection compatible with local installs using HTTP

  In local installations that don't use HTTPS and where the app is accessed within a local network, requests won't be performed from a secure context. In this case, the browser won't send the Sec-Fetch-Site header. This means non-GET requests will be rejected because CSRF protection will fail when using the header-only approach.

  With this change, we allow these requests with missing Sec-Fetch-Site headers if:

  • They happen over HTTP
  • The app is not configured to force SSL

  The Origin check always happens in any case.

  Rosa Gutierrez

• Deprecate calling protect_from_forgery without specifying a strategy.

  When protect_from_forgery is called without the :with option, it currently defaults to :null_session. This is inconsistent with config.action_controller.default_protect_from_forgery, which uses :exception.

  A new configuration option config.action_controller.default_protect_from_forgery_with has been added to allow applications to configure the default strategy. It currently defaults to :null_session for backwards compatibility, but will change to :exception in a future version of Rails.

  Applications can opt into the new behavior now by setting:

  config.action_controller.default_protect_from_forgery_with = :exception

  To silence the deprecation warning without changing behavior, explicitly pass the strategy:

  protect_from_forgery with: :null_session

  Said Kaldybaev

• Add ActionDispatch::Request#bearer_token to extract the bearer token from the Authorization header. Bearer tokens are commonly used for API and MCP requests.

  DHH

• Add block support to ActionController::Parameters#merge

  ActionController::Parameters#merge now accepts a block to resolve conflicts, consistent with Hash#merge and Parameters#merge!.

  params1 = ActionController::Parameters.new(a: 1, b: 2)
  params2 = ActionController::Parameters.new(b: 3, c: 4)
  params1.merge(params2) { |key, old_val, new_val| old_val + new_val }
  # => #<ActionController::Parameters {"a"=>1, "b"=>5, "c"=>4} permitted: false>

  Said Kaldybaev

• Yield key to ActionController::Parameters#fetch block

  key = params.fetch(:missing) { |missing_key| missing_key }
  key # => :missing
  
  key = params.fetch("missing") { |missing_key| missing_key }
  key # => "missing"

  Sean Doyle

• Add config.action_controller.live_streaming_excluded_keys to control execution state sharing in ActionController::Live.

  When using ActionController::Live, actions are executed in a separate thread that shares state from the parent thread. This new configuration allows applications to opt-out specific state keys that should not be shared.

  This is useful when streaming inside a connected_to block, where you may want the streaming thread to use its own database connection context.

  # config/application.rb
  config.action_controller.live_streaming_excluded_keys = [:active_record_connected_to_stack]

  By default, all keys are shared.

  Eileen M. Uchitelle

• Add controller action source location to routes inspector.

  The routes inspector now shows where controller actions are defined. In rails routes --expanded, a new "Action Location" field displays the file and line number of each action method.

  On the routing error page, when RAILS_EDITOR or EDITOR is set, a clickable ✏️ icon appears next to each Controller#Action that opens the action directly in the editor.

  Guillermo Iguaran

• Active Support notifications for CSRF warnings.

  Switches from direct logging to event-driven logging, allowing others to subscribe to and act on CSRF events:

  • csrf_token_fallback.action_controller
  • csrf_request_blocked.action_controller
  • csrf_javascript_blocked.action_controller

  Jeremy Daer

• Modern header-based CSRF protection.

  Modern browsers send the Sec-Fetch-Site header to indicate the relationship between request initiator and target origins. Rails now uses this header to verify same-origin requests without requiring authenticity tokens.

  Two verification strategies are available via protect_from_forgery using::

  • :header_only - Uses Sec-Fetch-Site header only. Rejects requests without a valid header. Default for new Rails 8.2 applications.

  • :header_or_legacy_token - Uses Sec-Fetch-Site header when present, falls back to authenticity token verification for older browsers.

  Configure trusted origins for legitimate cross-site requests (OAuth callbacks, third-party embeds) with trusted_origins::

  protect_from_forgery trusted_origins: %w[ https://accounts.google.com ]

  InvalidAuthenticityToken is deprecated in favor of InvalidCrossOriginRequest.

  Rosa Gutierrez

• Fix action_dispatch_request early load hook call when building Rails app middleware.

  Gannon McGibbon

• Emit a structured event when action_on_open_redirect is set to :notify in addition to the existing Active Support Notification.

  Adrianna Chang, Hartley McGuire

• Support text/markdown format in DebugExceptions middleware.

  When text/markdown is requested via the Accept header, error responses are returned with Content-Type: text/markdown instead of HTML. The existing text templates are reused for markdown output, allowing CLI tools and other clients to receive byte-efficient error information.

  Guillermo Iguaran

• Support dynamic to: and within: options in rate_limit.

  The to: and within: options now accept callables (lambdas or procs) and method names (as symbols), in addition to static values. This allows for dynamic rate limiting based on user attributes or other runtime conditions.

  class APIController < ApplicationController
    rate_limit to: :max_requests, within: :time_window, by: -> { current_user.id }
  
    private
      def max_requests
        current_user.premium? ? 1000 : 100
      end
  
      def time_window
        current_user.premium? ? 1.hour : 1.minute
      end
  end

  Murilo Duarte

• Define ActionController::Parameters#deconstruct_keys to support pattern matching

  if params in { search:, page: }
    Article.search(search).limit(page)
  else
    …
  end
  
  case (value = params[:string_or_hash_with_nested_key])
  in String
    # do something with a String `value`…
  in { nested_key: }
    # do something with `nested_key` or `value`
  else
    # …
  end

  Sean Doyle

• Submit test requests using as: :html with Content-Type: x-www-form-urlencoded

  Sean Doyle

• Add svg: renderer:

  class Page
    def to_svg
      body
    end
  end
  
  class PagesController < ActionController::Base
    def show
      @page = Page.find(params[:id])
  
      respond_to do |format|
        format.html
        format.svg { render svg: @page }
      end
    end
  end

  Thiago Youssef

Please check 8-1-stable for previous changes.