Several years ago I created an opinionated set of Ruby on Rails application templates called Kickstart. The project went inactive for some time, but a week ago I decided to rebuild it from the ground up. I’m excited to share that a new version is now in active development, with more features on the way.
What’s new so far
- Updated for Rails 8.1
- Added a shell script for interactively selecting templates
- All templates now live in one repo (no more git submodules)
- Shared code across templates
- Three templates currently in progress: REST API, minimal (importmaps + Tailwind), esbuild + Tailwind
- Basic setup included: RSpec tests, RuboCop + StandardRB linters, and common gems (Solid Stack, Mission Control, Letter Opener, i18n tools, etc.)
What’s planned next
- Database encryption with Lockbox (more feature-rich than ActiveRecordEncryption)
- Custom generators for authentication (passwordless, login/password, and Google/Apple), with disposable email protection and haveibeenpwned integration
- Custom error pages
- Deployment configs for Kamal
- Scaffold templates
- Admin console
- BI with Blazer, Ahoy, and Searchjoy
- End-to-end tests
- New templates: Inertia with Svelte and React, GraphQL API
- And more coming soon
Current challenges
- Avoiding dotenv files and lengthy setup instructions. The goal is to ship preconfigured credentials for development and test environments.
- Designing custom generators that let developers choose their authentication strategy: passwordless (preferred), login/password with
bcrypt, or social login withomniauth.
If you find the project useful, feel free to star the repo and share your feedback. Ideas and suggestions are always welcome.