My personal preferred template for starting a new Rails application.

• Ruby
• rbenv
• Node.js
• PostgreSQL (unless you specify a different database)

Use the template directly with rails new:

rails new APP_PATH [options] --template=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbhannah/rails-template/HEAD/template.rb

or run a bootstrapping script that uses Bundler to install Rails, then forwards options to bundle exec rails new:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbhannah/rails-template/HEAD/bootstrap.rb | ruby - APP_PATH [options]

and then start your app:

cd APP_PATH # you can skip this if APP_PATH is .
bin/dev

When running the bootstrapping script, the following options are passed to bundle exec rails new:

--css=postcss
--database=postgresql
--devcontainer
--javascript=esbuild
--template=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbhannah/rails-template/HEAD/template.rb

With the exception of --template, any options you specify will take priority over these overrides.

[!CAUTION] These overrides are not applied when using the template with rails new, only when running it as a bootstrapping script.

You can also (re)apply the template to an existing app:

bin/rails app:template LOCATION=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbhannah/rails-template/HEAD/template.rb

bundle install
rake --tasks

Copyright © 2025 Jesse Brooklyn Hannah. Licensed under the terms of the MIT License.