Show HN: Rails Agent – Build Autonomous AI Agents Natively in Ruby on Rails

Rails Agent — Build AI agents in Rails like a walk in the park

The fullstack framework for building agents in Rails

The fullstack framework for building agents in Rails. Build, test, deploy, and monitor in one platform.

A Rails-native DSL, coding-agent docs, Playbooks, Connectors, Slack channels via Open-Wire, Packages from open registries, and the cloud to test, deploy, and monitor.

Get started→How it works

BuildChannelsConnectorsPackagesMemoryGuardrailsBudgetTestDeployMonitor

Works with Rails 7+ · Ruby 3.2+ · Cloud runtime included

Our mission

Make AI agent development a zero-knowledge task for Rails developers.

You shouldn't have to become an AI engineer to add agentic features to your app. Rails Agent turns the Rails skills you already have into production-ready agents — one install, docs + Playbooks, one deploy.

Zero AI knowledge

You don't need to understand LLMs, embeddings, or prompt engineering. If you can write Rails, you can ship agents.

Docs-first build

Follow embedded Dashboard Docs and your external coding agent. Local app/agents/ files are the source of truth — scaffold blank or from a Playbook.

BYOK model keys

Attach encrypted provider credentials per workspace and agent. Model spend bills your OpenAI, Anthropic, or other account directly.

Build to deploy to monitor

One platform covers the whole lifecycle: draft, test, ship, and watch — no separate tools to wire up.

Scalable agentic infra

Hosted runtime, autoscaling, retries, and tracing are included. We handle the hard parts so you don't have to.

Unified monitoring & debugging

Every trace, log, error, and cost is searchable in /agents. One place to understand every run.

Four agent types

Knowledge and Workflow

Every agent maps to a typed Ruby base class. Pick a type at create time or when cloning a Playbook — the scaffold includes metadata and the right gem base.

Knowledge Agent

Eg: Answer “Where is order ORD-1001?” from your Rails database and support docs.

RailsAgents::KnowledgeAgent

Workflow Agent

Eg: New order → update order info in Google Sheets and send an email notification.

RailsAgents::WorkflowAgent

Zero config

You write the agent. We run everything else.

No vector database or Redis to provision. Attach provider keys under Settings → Providers. Rails Agent Cloud runs the production harness — model spend bills your provider; managed infra is pass-through at cost plus a transparent 5% service fee when metered.

Your job is agent logic in app/agents/. We handle deploy, scale, traces, and monitoring.

Models

BYOK — attach OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or OpenRouter keys. Optional :auto fallback when configured.

Vector store

Embed and retrieve knowledge. No pgvector, no Pinecone.

Queue & workers

Long-running tools, streaming, retries — all handled.

Deploys & scaling

Push once, we autoscale. Rollbacks in one click.

Traces & logs

Every run, every tool call, every token — searchable.

Platform keys

rak_* API keys for cloud auth — distinct from provider BYOK.

The whole idea

Your agent is a directory.

No YAML soup. No hidden config. Every agent is one folder inside your existing Rails app — and you can read it top to bottom in a minute.

your rails apptree

▸app/agents/support/

•agent.rb

▸tools/

▸connectors/

•memory.rb

▸knowledge/

▸evals/

•prompt.md

generated by rails agent new support

01

Your agent is a folder

app/agents/support/

One directory per agent. Everything it needs lives inside it — nothing hidden in config, nothing scattered across the repo.

02

The brain

agent.rb

A plain Ruby class. Pick a model, write the instructions in English. That's the whole agent.

03

Things the agent can do

tools/

Each file is one action — look up an order, send an email, refund a charge. Just Ruby methods on your existing models.

04

One-click connectors

connectors/

Connect Google Sheets, Notion, HubSpot, and 3,000+ apps — OAuth managed for you. Install from the dashboard Integrate tab.

05

What it remembers

memory.rb

Per-user, per-thread or per-org. We store it, back it up and expire it. You just say what to remember.

06

What it knows

knowledge/

Drop in PDFs, markdown, or point at a database. We chunk, embed and retrieve — no vector DB to run.

07

How you know it works

evals/

Example conversations with the answers you expect. Every change runs through them before shipping.

08

How it talks

prompt.md

The system prompt in plain markdown. Edit it in the dashboard, commit it in git — same file, same source of truth.

Connectors

1,000+ apps, one-click install.

Connect Google Sheets, Notion, HubSpot, Slack, and thousands more — OAuth handled, tools ready for your agent. No custom integrations to build.

1,000+ appstools toolsOne-click connect

Google Sheets

Notion

GitHub

Slack

Gmail

HubSpot

Linear

Discord

Stripe

Zendesk

Asana

Trello

Shopify

Twilio

Google Drive

Jira

Salesforce

Dropbox

Intercom

Figma

Zoom

OpenAI

Google Sheets

Notion

GitHub

Slack

Gmail

HubSpot

Linear

Discord

Stripe

Zendesk

Asana

Trello

Shopify

Twilio

Google Drive

Jira

Salesforce

Dropbox

Intercom

Figma

Zoom

OpenAI

Google Sheets

Notion

GitHub

Slack

Gmail

HubSpot

Linear

Discord

Stripe

Zendesk

Asana

Trello

Shopify

Twilio

Google Drive

Jira

Salesforce

Dropbox

Intercom

Figma

Zoom

OpenAI

Google Sheets

Notion

GitHub

Slack

Gmail

HubSpot

Linear

Discord

Stripe

Zendesk

Asana

Trello

Shopify

Twilio

Google Drive

Jira

Salesforce

Dropbox

Intercom

Figma

Zoom

OpenAI

Packages

Skills and tools from open registries.

From Build → Packages, search Skills.sh, Smithery, and Microsoft APM — then attach packages into the agent folder your Rails app already syncs.

Skills.sh

Agent skills

Browse and attach skills from the Skills.sh registry into your agent.

Smithery

MCP servers

Discover Smithery packages and wire tools into Build → Packages.

Microsoft APM

Agent Package Manager

Install Microsoft APM packages alongside your Rails agent files.

Open dashboard → Packages

Playbooks

250+ playbooks. Pick one, ship an agent.

Start from a real Rails use case — support, sales, finance, ops, and more. Clone a playbook to scaffold agent.rb, prompt.md, and metadata, then customize in Overview.

250+ playbooks20 categoriesGet It → scaffold agent

Step 1

Browse

Pick a playbook for your team

Step 2

Get It

Opens signup with the playbook loaded

Step 3

Customize

Agent files land in app/agents/

Customer SupportCustomer SupportSalesSalesEngineeringEngineeringMarketingMarketingFinanceFinanceOperationsOperationsProduct ManagementProduct ManagementHuman ResourcesHuman ResourcesLegalLegalDesignDesignDataDataProductivityProductivityProductivityEnterprise SearchOperationsSmall BusinessCustomer SupportCustomer Support: Triage workflowEngineeringEngineering: Triage workflowMarketingMarketing: Draft workflowCustomer SupportCustomer SupportSalesSalesEngineeringEngineeringMarketingMarketingFinanceFinanceOperationsOperationsProduct ManagementProduct ManagementHuman ResourcesHuman ResourcesLegalLegalDesignDesignDataDataProductivityProductivityProductivityEnterprise SearchOperationsSmall BusinessCustomer SupportCustomer Support: Triage workflowEngineeringEngineering: Triage workflowMarketingMarketing: Draft workflow

Customer SupportCustomer SupportSalesSalesEngineeringEngineeringMarketingMarketingFinanceFinanceOperationsOperationsProduct ManagementProduct ManagementHuman ResourcesHuman ResourcesLegalLegalDesignDesignDataDataProductivityProductivityProductivityEnterprise SearchOperationsSmall BusinessCustomer SupportCustomer Support: Triage workflowEngineeringEngineering: Triage workflowMarketingMarketing: Draft workflowCustomer SupportCustomer SupportSalesSalesEngineeringEngineeringMarketingMarketingFinanceFinanceOperationsOperationsProduct ManagementProduct ManagementHuman ResourcesHuman ResourcesLegalLegalDesignDesignDataDataProductivityProductivityProductivityEnterprise SearchOperationsSmall BusinessCustomer SupportCustomer Support: Triage workflowEngineeringEngineering: Triage workflowMarketingMarketing: Draft workflow

Browse all 250+ playbooks →

Channels

One agent. Every channel your users already use.

Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, web chat, email, Discord, Telegram, SMS, GitHub, Linear, cron, and HTTP — the same agent brain, delivered through OpenWire so you are not rebuilding OAuth and event plumbing for each surface.

🪟

Web chat

Browser chat + eve HTTP API

💬

Slack

Branded bot in channels & DMs

🎮

Discord

Slash commands & components

🔷

Microsoft Teams

Adaptive Cards in Teams

✈️

Telegram

Telegram bot in one install

📞

Twilio (SMS + Voice)

SMS and speech-transcribed calls

🐙

GitHub

PR reviews & issue triage

▲

Linear

Issue delegation & Agent Sessions

🟩

WhatsApp

Meta Cloud / Chat SDK

✉️

Email

Connect a company mailbox

💭

Facebook Messenger

Messenger via Chat SDK

🟢

Google Chat

Google Workspace Chat

⚙️

HTTP API

JSON run endpoint

⏱

Cron / schedules

Scheduled agent runs

Browse all channels →

How it works

Easy enough that Playbooks do the heavy lifting.

Add the gem, open /agents, follow docs or clone a Playbook. Four steps — no AI course required.

"Docs first, ship fast." — Rails Agent

01

Add the gem

In your Gemfile: gem "rails-agent-stack", github: "Tiny-Bubble-Company/rails-agents"

02

Install

bundle install, then bin/rails generate rails_agents:install. Mounts the engine and prepares credentials.

03

Start your Rails server

bin/dev, then open /agents — like Sidekiq. Sign up, add a provider key, follow Dashboard Docs.

04

Scaffold & customize

Blank agent or Playbook clone scaffolds agent.rb, prompt.md, and metadata. Edit locally or with your coding agent.

Everything you need for production agents

Durability, sandboxing, human-in-the-loop, and evals are built into the framework. Focus on building your agent.

Durable Execution

Workflows survive crashes and restarts. Every step is checkpointed. Agents park when waiting, resume on the next message.

Library & Playbooks

Reuse shared knowledge and skills across agents. Clone Playbooks into app/agents/ and customize in code or the dashboard.

Budget & Guardrails

Monthly token budgets with admin alerts, plus policies for model access, prompt-injection detection, and sensitive-info redaction.

Slack, Teams & Email

Connect Slack and Teams via Open-Wire. Connect company mailboxes (Gmail/Outlook) on the Email channel for inbound and outbound.

Packages & registries

Search Skills.sh, Smithery, and Microsoft APM from Build → Packages and attach skills into the agent folder.

Memory by default

New agents remember across conversations out of the box. Turn memory off per agent when you want each chat to start fresh.

Human-in-the-Loop

Tools that need confirmation trigger approval gates. Sessions park until resolved, then resume seamlessly.

Evaluations & Monitor

Define eval suites with scoring rubrics. Watch runs, tokens, and cost from Monitor — then tighten budgets when needed.

How we compare

Other Rails AI gems give you a client. We give you the whole platform.

RubyLLM and ActiveAgent are great libraries. But you still need AI knowledge, build the dashboard, and run the runtime yourself. Rails Agent ships the whole platform — no AI expertise required.

RailsAgent

Swipe to compare →

Feature

Rails Agentus

RubyLLM

ActiveAgent

DIY (LangChain + glue)

SetupOne gem, one CLI commandWire clients manuallyWire mailer-style classesPython + YAML + glue

AI knowledge requiredNone — just RailsYou wire models & promptsYou wire models & promptsDeep LLM & ops expertise

Dashboard included✓———

Playbooks + docs-first scaffold✓———

Hosted runtimeIncluded, one-command deployBring your ownBring your ownYou build & run it

Traces, evals, monitoring✓——Wire it yourself

Budget + Guardrails✓——DIY

Memory & knowledge (RAG)Built-in, on by defaultWire pgvector yourselfWire it yourselfWire it yourself

Model neutral (OpenAI

[truncated for AI cost control]