On Rails

• Florent Beaurain: Optimizing Rails Tests at Doctolib Scale

  In this episode of On Rails, Robby is joined by Florent Beaurain, a longtime Rails engineer at Doctolib, home to one of the largest Rails monoliths in Europe with over 3 million lines of code and 400+ engineers. They explore how Doctolib’s team tackled massive test suite performance issues, including cutting one engine’s test time from seven minutes to under one minute. Florent shares insights from managing 84,000 tests, scaling across 10 PostgreSQL databases, and maintaining Rails upgrades across a fast-moving organization using systematic approaches like dual-boot deployments and careful backporting strategies.  Tools & Libraries MentionedAWS Aurora (PostgreSQL) – Production database platform, scaled to 10+ writers and 15+ readers.Capybara – End-to-end testing of UI flows in the monolith.Capybara Lockstep –JavaScript sync layer reducing flakiness in React-driven feature specs.Datadog – Application performance monitoring for production systems.Docker – Local PostgreSQL and other data stores.FactoryBot – Identified as a major performance bottleneck in large test suites.factory_fixtures – Shopify gem extending fixtures with inline factory-style overrides. GitHub Copilot – Workflow automation and onboarding support.Heroku CI – Previously used for parallelized CI builds before moving to custom infrastructure.Jenkins – Original CI platform before scaling up to more powerful infrastructure.Minitest – Primary test framework, used throughout the monolith with some extensions.Packwerk – Used to modularize their monolith into engines with explicit boundaries and dependency declarations. PostgreSQL – Core relational database behind their production and local environments.React – Primary frontend framework, integrated into the Rails monolith via a single-page app architecture. Ruby on Rails – The framework behind Doctolib’s 3-million-line monolith and most of their core product infrastructure.safe-pg-migrations – Tool to reduce downtime risks during large-scale schema changes.Sentry – Error tracking and visibility tool integrated into their release workflow.Send us a textOn Rails is a podcast focused on real-world technical decision-making, exploring how teams are scaling, architecting, and solving complex challenges with Rails. On Rails is brought to you by The Rails Foundation, and hosted by Robby Russell of Planet Argon, a consultancy that helps teams improve and modernize their existing Ruby on Rails apps.

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• Hilary Stohs-Krause: Scaling Rails with Small Wins

  In this episode of On Rails, Robby is joined by Hilary Stohs-Krause, a Senior Software Engineer at Red Canary. They explore how engineering teams approach everyday performance work, from small Active Record optimizations to larger architectural decisions. Hilary shares insights from Red Canary's journey switching from React to Rails' native Hotwire stack, how her team tackled flaky test failures that were slowing down continuous deployments, and some strong opinions about custom linters.🧰 Tools, Libraries, and Books MentionedRuboCop – Enforces Ruby style and conventions, with support for custom cops.haml-lint – Linter for HAML templates to enforce consistent view code.ESLint – JavaScript linter used for maintaining consistent code quality, especially in React.HadoLint – Linter for Dockerfiles to catch common issues and enforce best practices.SitePrism – Page-object model DSL for Capybara to reduce flaky system tests.Sidekiq – Background job processor used in production Rails environments.Turbo – Part of the Hotwire stack for reactive updates without full-page reloads.Stimulus – Lightweight JavaScript framework for enhancing HTML with small interactions.Hotwire – A set of tools (Turbo + Stimulus) for building modern web apps without heavy JavaScript.Thinking in Bets – A book about better decision-making under uncertainty, by Annie Duke.Send us a textOn Rails is a podcast focused on real-world technical decision-making, exploring how teams are scaling, architecting, and solving complex challenges with Rails. On Rails is brought to you by The Rails Foundation, and hosted by Robby Russell of Planet Argon, a consultancy that helps teams improve and modernize their existing Ruby on Rails apps.

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• Ryan Stawarz & Austin Story: Inside Doximity’s 15-Year Rails Monolith

  In this episode of On Rails, Robby is joined by Ryan Stawarz and Austin Story from Doximity, where Ruby on Rails has powered the core of their platform for over 15 years. The trio digs into how a single Rails monolith has evolved to support 100+ engineers and a mobile-first experience for millions of healthcare professionals. From front-end framework migrations to API architecture, they explore the real-world decisions required to keep a large Rails app resilient and fast-moving.Ryan and Austin walk us through the team’s adoption of GraphQL, what led them to introduce GraphQL Federation, and how they balance speed with reliability when scaling APIs across domains. They talk about the tradeoffs of maintaining both GraphQL and REST, and how Doximity avoids N+1 query pitfalls using BatchLoader. The conversation also touches on the evolution of their front-end—from Backbone to Vue.js—and why Rails’ flexibility still gives them an edge.Throughout the episode, they share pragmatic insights into debugging at scale, managing one-off data migrations, and determining when a service should live inside or outside the monolith. They also reflect on their use of tools like Packwerk, AnyCable, and Departure, and how a culture of trust, documentation, and lightweight planning helps Doximity move fast without breaking things.🧰 Tools & Libraries Mentioned- Ruby on Rails – The web framework powering Doximity’s monolith and many of their services.  - GraphQL-Ruby – Ruby gem for building GraphQL APIs in Rails.  - BatchLoader– Helps reduce N+1 queries in GraphQL.  - Vue.js – Their chosen frontend framework for building single-page applications.  - Packwerk – Helps enforce modular boundaries in their Rails monolith.  - Departure – Used for safe database migrations on large datasets.  - Thor – Used to run one-off CLI scripts with easier testability.  - rake-ui – Internal tool for triggering Rake tasks via a web UI.  - AnyCable – Go-based replacement for ActionCable to support realtime features at scale.  - Docker – Powers consistent local dev and containerized environments.  - FiSend us a textOn Rails is a podcast focused on real-world technical decision-making, exploring how teams are scaling, architecting, and solving complex challenges with Rails. On Rails is brought to you by The Rails Foundation, and hosted by Robby Russell of Planet Argon, a consultancy that helps teams improve and modernize their existing Ruby on Rails apps.

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• Nadia Odunayo & Scaling Rails for Millions of Users as a Solo Dev

  In this episode of On Rails, Nadia Odunayo, founder and solo developer of The StoryGraph, joins us to share what it really takes to build and maintain a Rails application used by over four million readers across web and mobile.We discuss lessons from launching a PWA, shifting to Turbo Native for cross-platform support, and navigating challenges like in-app purchases and data syncing between systems. Nadia also talks about the bold decision to move from Heroku to YugabyteDB to support growing workloads, and why she decided against hiring a team to manage it.We also explore what it means to remain a solo developer by choice, the value of the Rails community, and why Ruby on Rails continues to be the framework that powers her entire business. Platforms & DistributionThe StoryGraph – Nadia’s solo-built reading and book tracking platform Apple App Store – The StoryGraphGoogle Play Store – StoryGraph Progressive Web Apps (MDN) – Alternative mobile delivery method initially exploredTools, Libraries & ServicesRuby on Rails – The primary framework powering The StoryGraph Turbo / Hotwire Native – Used to support mobile apps with shared Rails backend Devise (GitHub) – Authentication library for Rails Sidekiq – Background job processor Makara (GitHub) – Database proxy for master/replica load splitting Heroku – Former hosting platform for The StoryGraph YugabyteDB – Postgres-compatible distributed database chosen for scaling CTEs (Common Table Expressions) – Used for optimizing queries across distributed dataLinear – Project management tool currently used by NadiaBooksRuby Under a Microscope by Pat Shaughnessy – A deep dive into Ruby internals Send us a textOn Rails is a podcast focused on real-world technical decision-making, exploring how teams are scaling, architecting, and solving complex challenges with Rails. On Rails is brought to you by The Rails Foundation, and hosted by Robby Russell of Planet Argon, a consultancy that helps teams improve and modernize their existing Ruby on Rails apps.

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• Jean Boussier & IO-Bound Misconceptions

  Jean Boussier, Senior Staff Engineer at Shopify and member of the Rails Core team, joins Robby to dig into the performance realities behind modern Rails apps.They explore what it means to be IO-bound or CPU-bound, how Ruby’s Global VM Lock affects concurrency, and why "fast" is too vague to be useful. Jean explains why instrumentation is often the missing piece and shares thoughtful approaches to using background jobs with intention.They also talk about gem dependencies. The gems in your `Gemfile` are not magic. If your app depends on them, you should understand them. You can read the code. You can patch it. You can make it your own.This episode is a reminder that Rails is not a black box. It is a system you can study, shape, and improve. The more you learn how it works, the more confidently you can build with it.🔗 References & Resources Mentioned- 📖 Crafting Interpreters – A book Jean recommends for understanding how interpreters and Ruby internals work  - 🧵 GVL Tools (Shopify gem) – A tool for measuring thread contention in Ruby apps  - 📊 AppSignal – Monitoring platform that integrates with GVL instrumentation  - 🚢 ShipIt Engine – Shopify’s open-source deployment tool  - 🔒 Ruby’s Global VM Lock – Overview of what the GVL is and how it works  - 🦄 Unicorn – A classic preforking Ruby web server  - 🐆 Puma – A multi-threaded Ruby/Rack web server  - 🔀 Pitchfork – Shopify’s fork of Unicorn, optimized for their infrastructure  - ⚙️ ActiveRecord Async Queries – Jean’s Rails Core contribution for backgrounding slow queries  - 🔗 GraphQL – Used at Shopify to structure and query API dataSend us a textOn Rails is a podcast focused on real-world technical decision-making, exploring how teams are scaling, architecting, and solving complex challenges with Rails. On Rails is brought to you by The Rails Foundation, and hosted by Robby Russell of Planet Argon, a consultancy that helps teams improve and modernize their existing Ruby on Rails apps.

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