Announcing Shoulda Matchers 8.0: validate multiple attributes in one line

2026-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

You know the drill if you’ve validated the same rule on a few attributes. One presence validation is one matcher, and five of them turn into five nearly identical lines that don’t tell the next reader much:

it { is_expected.to validate_presence_of(:first_name) }
it { is_expected.to validate_presence_of(:last_name) }
it { is_expected.to validate_presence_of(:email) }

Shoulda Matchers 8.0 is out on RubyGems, and it gets rid of that repetition. It also moves the gem onto Ruby 4 and the latest Rails. Let’s dig in.

One matcher, many attributes

Validation matchers now can receive more than one attribute, so those three lines become one:

it { is_expected.to validate_presence_of(:first_name, :last_name, :email) }

Qualifiers apply to all of them, so a grouped expectation reads just as clearly as the one-at-a-time version:

it { is_expected.to validate_presence_of(:arms, :legs).allow_nil }

Grouping doesn’t cost you anything when a spec goes red. The failure message calls out each attribute that failed and why, so you still land right on the problem.

These eleven matchers currently support the multiple-attribute syntax:

validate_presence_of
validate_absence_of
validate_acceptance_of
validate_confirmation_of
validate_length_of
validate_numericality_of
validate_inclusion_of
validate_exclusion_of
validate_comparison_of
have_readonly_attribute
have_one_attached

Ready for Ruby 4

8.0 runs on Ruby 4. We also bumped the supported versions up to the latest stable Ruby and Rails, so the gem matches the stack your app is probably already on and you won’t have to hold your test suite back to upgrade.

Keeping up with Rails associations

Rails is shifting to a new deprecated associations API. 8.0 supports it, so your association matchers keep working as Rails changes. Nothing for you to do here.

Upgrading

The only breaking change in 8.0 is dropping support for end-of-life Ruby and Rails versions, specifically Rails 7.1 and Ruby 3.2. If you’re already on a current Ruby and Rails, the upgrade should be seamless. Bump the version, run your suite, and you’re done. The new multiple-attribute syntax is opt-in, so your existing matchers keep working exactly as before. If you’re still on Rails 7.1 or Ruby 3.2, stick with the 7.x line until you can move up.

Thank you

Thanks to everyone who helped make this release happen.

Bump your Gemfile to 8.0.1 and let us know what you’d like grouped next. The full list of changes is in the CHANGELOG. Enjoy!

Meet thoughtbot at Brighton Ruby 2026

2026-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

Brighton Ruby 2026 will take place in a few days and the thoughtbot team will be there to meet you all in real life, learn from all the great talks, and enjoy a day by the English coast.

We love Brighton Ruby and enjoyed it for many years. It is a single-day, single-track conference packed with great energy and great people.

This year we will have 5 thoughtbotters attending:

Aji will be at Brighton Ruby for the first time! They are always happy to talk about ruby game development, recent conversations on The Bike Shed, tracking reading lists on Storygraph, or (let’s see what else… ::rummages through bag of hobbies::) linguistic anthropology. Come say hello!

Chad is thoughtbot’s founder and CEO, host of the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots‘s podcast and eternal player of D&D.

Mina is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and this will be her first time at Brighton Ruby. She’s interested in infrastructure as code and closing the gap between operations responsibilities and application development, is an avid marathon runner, always looking to strike up a conversation about the works of Brandon Sanderson or show off pictures of her dogs, Dottie and Henson.

Rob is our EMEA Development Director, based in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire and most likely you have seen him already in Brighton Ruby or other conferences.

He has a not-so-quiet obsession with best practices and striving for improvement. He likes to hunt down delicious beers and coffee in his spare time. Despite the recent ups and downs, he’s an avid Stoke City fan, which is only a testament to his determination!

Sarah is a developer and team lead, based in Porto, Portugal, and originally from Brazil. She enjoys working with Ruby especially, but also on any technology that enables projects to move forward. She loves playings sports like volleyball and has a great movies and TV series culture.

And finally, we will also have a speaker at the conference this year: myself, Rémy Hannequin. I am happy to share that I will be giving a talk on time management and surprises with Ruby.

I am based in Paris, France, and I have a serious passion for astronomy. I created multiple open source projects to combine Ruby and astronomy, with the main one being Astronoby, a Ruby gem to allows to compute celestial events and positions with extreme precision.

If you’re attending, come say hello! We’re always up for talking about Ruby, Rails, that new gem we’re excited about, the eternal Vim vs VS Code debate or we can just share a drink and talk about something else! Keep an eye on thoughtbot on Mastodon and Rob’s personal account to see where we’ll be hanging out.

We can’t wait to share the experience with you.