Writing about technologies I work with
A practical control loop (with code) for turning Codex-style assistants into force multipliers—and why experience is non-negotiable.
TL;DR AI without strong engineering judgment amplifies bad practices, bloats scope, and quietly ships risk; the result is worse code, slower delivery, more spend. AI paired with an experienced engineer—with...
How we merged Rails, RSpec, and Ruby rules into a single, enforceable guide—and how to attach it to Cursor prompts for consistent, efficient results.
We turned scattered conventions into a single PROJECT_CONTRIBUTION_GUIDE_v3.md that your editor and AI assistant can follow. This post explains the structure, the reasoning, and how to use it with Cursor...
Zero-setup onboarding, reproducible environments, and fewer 'works on my machine' moments.
ACID in Rails PostgreSQL vs MongoDB with Atomic Patterns
A tiny Rails console banner that show app stats every time you run rails c
Optimizing a Complex Rails Profile Endpoint
A battle-tested, copy‑paste `/up` endpoint for Rails API apps—no autoloading traps, no brittle config. One initializer, ENV‑driven settings, optional DB/Redis checks, clear status semantics, and end‑to‑end tests.
If your test suite ever fails “only sometimes,” there’s a good chance time is involved. Rails ships with the excellent ActiveSupport::Testing::TimeHelpers, giving you tools like freeze_time, travel_to, and travel to...
If you’re comfortable writing Rails apps but want to really understand what’s going on under the hood—and use that knowledge to make better technical decisions—this is your map.
layout: post title: “Deep Rails Instrumentation: ActiveSupport::Notifications & LogSubscriber (Rails 8+)” date: 2025-08-11 tags: [ruby-on-rails, rails-8, instrumentation, performance, logging] description: “Practical, copy-paste-ready patterns for ActiveSupport::Notifications and ActiveSupport::LogSubscriber in Rails 8+.”...
layout: post title: “Mastering ActiveSupport::LogSubscriber (Rails 8+): JSON logs, per-tenant routing, and production patterns” date: 2025-08-11 tags: [ruby-on-rails, rails-8, logging, logsubscriber, observability, json-logs] description: “A practical, production-grade guide to ActiveSupport::LogSubscriber...
Step-by-step guide to securing your Ruby on Rails API authentication using Devise, Devise-JWT, Doorkeeper-JWT, and RSA encryption keys.
A step‑by‑step log of the dead‑ends and the final, tidy setup— complete with code snippets, failure‑app JSON errors, and cURL recipes.
“Postman logs me in, cURL gives ‘You need to sign in’, and somehow I can hit endpoints with no token at all—what on earth is going on?”
In 2014, I decided to move to Kyiv, Ukraine. I had a great opportunity to work on an interesting project that integrated with the UK police force to help fight...
Applications always change. This post collects practical principles and Rails‑friendly patterns I use to keep code maintainable over the long run—leaning on Ruby on Rails conventions, small POROs, and simple...