Migrating to the (New) Rails Way: Rails 8’s Ethos Changes

There are lots of guides and posts out there around the changes Rails 8 brings to the table — how to upgrade your code, the configs you need to tweak, etc. But what I’ve personally found missing with each new major release of Rails is a broader update to the expectations of Rails apps. Rails is an opinionated, conventions-based framework. But any Rails 5 app can update without (much) ado to Rails 6. Or Rails 7. Does that mean your app is “on Rails 7”? Or does being “on Rails 7” encompass a different, more subtle group of changes and expectations around how your app operates?

I think it does. I also think these are largely unwritten.

So I’m going to do my best to write them here for Rails 7 -> Rails 8.

Rails 8 (DHH’s opinions, mostly)

• Maybe consider rolling your own Auth? Don’t assume you’re tied to Devise; don’t assume auth is that hard to roll
• Consider getting away from PaaS’s; what if you just roll your own hardware?
• You should definitely be using import maps and simpler CSS by now

Comments? Thoughts?