One more cheers to the end of an era! RailsConf 2025 closed one door, but left many more wide open for the Rails universe to continue evolving.
In my entirely biased opinion, no talk summed up the journey and impact of RailsConf as a mirror of the broader Ruby on Rails community better than our own Aji Slater’s Keynote of Keynotes. Aji lovingly crafted a retrospective that revisited every single prior RailsConf keynote, weaving together the themes, challenges, and hopes that have shaped this community over the years. It struck just the right balance of reflection and fun.
It’s been wonderful to see the appreciation from the community since Aji’s talk. Some even say they gave Tenderlove a run for his money. Here is one sample of the community love, coming from from Allison Vogel on Linkedin:
I just watched this on the Ruby Central YouTube Channel, and my goodness…….. Aji Slater completely knocked my socks off. There’s a reason for that standing ovation at the end!!! What a marvelous journey from where we started til today and the many inspiring moments and stories that were shared along the way (and are still 100% relevant!)🌈💕
Another standout thoughtbot moment came from Joël Quenneville, whose talk The History of Rails in 10 Blog Posts took us down memory lane from a different angle: through the blog posts that shaped how we think about Rails. Joël, himself a prolific blog writer, spotlighted how discourse, writing, and public debate have always played a key role in the framework’s evolution.
Even more thoughtbot team members shared their expertise:
Ruby Internals: A Guide for Rails Developer – Matheus Richard took RailsConf under the hood of Ruby, no C experience required! His talk was designed especially for Rails developers curious about how their code really runs.
An ActiveRecord Rewrite: The Story Behind the Attributes API – Tess Griffin delivered a behind-the-scenes look at the development and refactoring of the Attributes API. Her talk told the story of a major overhaul from Sage Griffin, the core contributor behind the rewrite, former thoughtbotter, and Tess’ wife. Talk about getting the scoop!
Afterwards, having digested the conference, Joël and Tess sat for a thoughtful debrief on The Bike Shed podcast.
Ruby Underground was decoded
Hey… pssst! Did you make it to the Ruby Underground? Back by popular demand, thoughtbot invited friends, speakers, clients (and other people of mystery) together at an undisclosed location deep beneath the city of Philadelphia.
We couldn’t do it alone though, we cohosted the event with Underdog Fantasy (they’re hiring!) and were joined by friends and sponsors Judoscale and Scout APM to throw a packed house mixer complete with a few puzzles.
Here are a few snaps from the night:
Huge thanks to everyone who joined us! Here’s to what’s next.