Ruby on Rails is having a moment again. Across sold-out global conferences, social media, and GitHub repos, there’s a renewed energy around the framework and its ecosystem.
For thoughtbot, this momentum is a continuation of where we’ve always been. Rails and open source have been at the core of our work for over 20 years, from the days of Rails’ early growth and the creation of factory_bot to collaborating on tools and practices that now define modern development, including those for the AI era.
That’s why we’re excited to announce the return of the thoughtbot Open Summit, happening virtually and across timezones on October 31, 2025!
thoughtbot Open Summit is a free, global event where developers, maintainers, and teams come together to make real contributions, build their skills, and help shape the future of the tools they rely on – plus learn about the ones they aren’t using yet!
Unlike most virtual events, thoughtbot Open Summit isn’t just a playlist of talks to play in the background. It’s a live, interactive, hands-on day of pairing and solving open source issues in real time. It offers community members the opportunity to contribute, ask questions, and get direct access to project maintainers.
And it’s not just about Rails. This year, we’re featuring special guests like Tim Riley, the creator of the Hanami framework and more leaders soon to be announced.
Why thoughtbot Open Summit is different
At thoughtbot Open Summit, you’ll:
- Pair with maintainers of factory_bot, Administrate, Superglue, and more to tackle real issues in real time.
- Learn from ecosystem leaders, including our own Chad Pytel and Aji Slater, plus special guests like Tim Riley from Hanami and more to be announced.
- Explore hot topics like AI in Rails and React and Rails.
- Ship contributions, whether it’s your first OSS PR or your thousandth.
- Gain tangible experience and skills you can bring back to your team.
Plus, you will get to be part of what’s next – with early access to new releases and the opportunity to influence the direction of key projects with your participation.
This year’s Summit is a space for senior ICs and engineering managers to level up, whether that’s by refining testing strategies with factory_bot, joining a regular expressions workshop, or seeing how other teams solve familiar problems.
And this isn’t just for developers who have been working on Rails for decades. thoughtbot Open Summit is designed to welcome first-time contributors, giving them the chance to work alongside experienced maintainers and see how approachable open source can be.
Why we do it, and you should to!
For over two decades, we have been more than a Rails consultancy. We’ve been stewards of open source, creating and maintaining tools that nearly every Rails team relies on – including factory_bot, which has become the de facto standard for test data in Rails.
Our team has always believed in working in the open: sharing code, playbooks, and practices that make the ecosystem better. thoughtbot Open Summit is an extension of that mission and a way to bring together the people who use these tools with the people who maintain them, creating faster feedback loops and stronger community connections.
As some attendees put it last year, thoughtbot Open Summit felt like “the old days of Rails” – full of energy, collaboration, and progress.
This year, we’re building on that with a single, can’t-miss tract, action packed with education your team can start applying to your toughest product challenges.
Join us
The Rails ecosystem is evolving quickly, from established tools like factory_bot and Administrate to emerging projects like Superglue and Hanami, not to mention new tools for building AI features in Rails.
This Summit is your chance to be part of that evolution, not just watch from the sidelines.
thoughtbot Open Summit 2025 is happening on October 31. It’s free, fully virtual, and open to contributors of all levels.