83% of Rails developers in this year's survey (so far) are working on a monolith. Only 3.5% on microservices. Rails teams may have never bought the microservices hype in the first place. Add your take - survey closes July 3: railsdeveloper.com/survey/

If you’ve followed us for a while, you’ve probably heard our perspective on long-lived Rails apps. Maintainable Rails is a short email course from Robby Russell sharing practical ideas for refactoring, upgrades, and keeping mature Rails apps healthy. maintainablerails.com

Early data from the 2026 Rails Survey shows that 54% of Rails developers say AI tools are regularly integrated into how they work. Only 2.4% have evaluated them and decided not to use them. The "Will Rails developers adopt AI?" conversation is happening- add your take. railsdeveloper.com/survey/

📊 The 2026 Ruby on Rails Community Survey is open! 9 years of tracking the Rails community, and we need your input to keep it going. Takes just a few minutes. Please share with your team! railsdeveloper.com/survey/

The codebase doesn't care how it got written. Neither does the problem it's solving. Our CEO, @RobbyRussell, shares some thoughts on the AI debate and why the honest answer is messier than either side admits. robbyonrails.com/articles/202...

Stay sharp. Skip the noise. Join the Maintainable Podcast newsletter. One email when a new episode drops. That's it. maintainable.fm/newsletter/

Maintainable Rails is a short email series from Robby Russell with practical lessons on refactoring, upgrades, and steady progress in long-lived codebases. Built for busy Rails developers. Join the course! maintainablerails.com

Our teammates Evaldo Klock and Jaison Coelho are having a blast at Tropical on Rails in Brazil this week!

What starts as simple reporting can quietly become the slowest part of a Rails app. Join our 30-minute Planet Argon LIVE webinar with Sergiu Truta next week to learn how to build efficient, maintainable reports with Rails. bit.ly/4bgqAzP

We talk a lot about helping Rails apps evolve instead of starting over. This e-course shows how. Join us! maintainablerails.com

Some software can’t be paused. When your system is in daily use, t The work has to happen while everything keeps moving. With Walkenhorst’s, we helped prepare their Rails app for its next chapter without slowing down operations or disrupting everyday users. www.planetargon.com/work/walkenh...

Our CEO, Robby Russell, built a tool called Clarion that analyzes a ticket and surfaces relevant context from Jira, Confluence, & GitHub. Then it suggests clarifying questions before development even starts. He wrote up the full breakdown on his blog, Robby on Rails. robbyonrails.com/articles/202...

A rewrite was planned. Newspaper Club was preparing for a Shopify migration, and their internal dev team was transitioning out. Meanwhile, their Rails app still needed to work. So they brought us in to keep things steady. But was a migration really necessary? www.planetargon.com/work/newspap...

What questions "should" we be asking about maintaining mature apps? Our CEO, Robby Russell, recently appeared on the "Overcommitted Podcast" to chat about sustaining software projects, killer docs/testing habits, and nailing work-life balance in tech. www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1cO...

Ruby 4.0 marks a new chapter for the ecosystem. For teams running mature Rails apps, it’s also a moment to ask: Is our application ready for its next act? A code audit helps teams understand what's happening in the codebase without guesswork. blog.planetargon.com/blog/entries...

Your Rails app doesn’t need a fresh start. It needs consistent care. The Maintainable Rails email course delivers one small, useful improvement each week. You'll learn to ask the right questions to make the simplest changes that make the biggest impact... and go from there! maintainablerails.com

Vacation's over... now what?! blog.planetargon.com/blog/entries...

We’re not here to tear things down or declare everything broken. We believe in stewardship, helping teams evolve the systems that matter. Good software doesn’t need a rescue. It needs a thoughtful path forward.

Get a little head start on preparing for the new year. blog.planetargon.com/blog/entries...

Support shouldn't feel like outsourcing. We want collaboration to feel natural. Like having another steady pair of hands... not a vendor across the ocean. When communication feels easy and progress feels shared, the work moves more steadily.

Take a little time to reflect on your year: blog.planetargon.com/blog/entries...

We’ve met teams who love their app but dread touching certain parts of it. You deserve to feel the opposite: That your app is sturdy, understood, and ready for what’s next. Our favorite moment is when a team looks at their codebase with pride again.

If your app has survived more than one rewrite rumor, you’re our kind of developer. Learn how to improve performance, reliability, and team sanity—one practical tip at a time. Join us for free at www.maintainablerails.com.

Every mature Rails app leaves clues about where it wants to evolve. Slow spots. Old dependencies. Tests that flinch when touched. The end of the year is the perfect moment to listen. Improvement rarely starts with a rewrite; it starts with paying attention.

We don’t believe in pressure or panic. We believe in guidance. We believe in making complicated decisions feel lighter. If you feel more grounded after talking with us, then we’re doing it right.

A good partner doesn’t just fix code. They help you feel confident about where your app is headed. When you feel clear and supported, it’s easier to plan. Easier to decide. Easier to move forward. www.planetargon.com/contact

A good Rails app isn’t fragile. It’s layered. If your app feels unwieldy at the end of the year, that doesn’t mean it's broken. It means it has history. It has context AI can’t guess. The opportunity in 2026 isn’t to start over... It’s to make the next layer smarter than the last.

🎁 Holiday shopping for a developer? Commit Goods (by Planet Argon) has official merch from Ghostty, Redux, fzf, Vue.js, and Oh My Zsh. Everything is 15% off with COMMITGOODSLAUNCH. commitgoods.com

Your app feels complicated because it’s been loved. If it were simple, it wouldn’t have survived this long. We’ve never met a mature codebase that didn’t have quirks, mysteries, or inside jokes. That’s part of the charm. And part of the opportunity.

This is the time of year when teams ask, “Do we need to just rebuild this thing next year?” Usually, the answer is no. Good software deserves a fresh plan, a few key upgrades, and renewed clarity to carry it forward without burning it down.

Something new is coming from the Planet Argon team. Introducing Commit Goods, official merch that gives back to open source projects. Stay tuned for Black Friday sales! commitgoods.com

You can’t catch someone up on 10 years of decisions in one meeting. And you shouldn’t have to. The right partner doesn’t rush into solutions. They spend time learning the rhythms, the patterns, the history. Because every system has a legacy worth understanding.

Small changes in your habits can keep your Rails app running years longer than you expected. The Maintainable Rails email course offers short, practical lessons. No fluff. No sales. Forever- free. maintainablerails.com

Another year is wrapping up. And somewhere, someone on your team is asking if it’s time to rewrite the app. It’s a familiar question. The clean slate always sounds appealing. But it also means starting over, relearning what you already know, and hoping it goes faster this time.

🎤 Productions Plus had a big idea: a custom tool to track the impact of face-to-face brand experiences—without invading anyone’s privacy. We designed it, built it, and launched it together.

Before you refactor, ask: What problem am I actually solving? Kent Beck’s Tidy First? reframes “cleanup” as a design choice—not a chore. Our take:

Our friends at FastRuby share how to spot the quiet warning signs of growing technical debt and how to address it strategically instead of reactively. blog.planetargon.com/blog/entries...

Most Rails apps don’t fail because the code is bad. They fail because no one remembers "why" it was written that way. Maintainable Rails helps your team document, refactor, and simplify—before “tech debt” becomes “tech regret.” 👉 Join our forever-free email series for more: maintainablerails.com

What’s better than shipping a project on time? Shipping on time AND leaving your team stronger than before. That’s what LabArchives discovered after working with us. ⭐

🎨 When Gnomon Workshop’s dev partner closed shop, they needed someone who could step in—fast—without breaking anything. We inherited their Rails app, sorted out the legacy handoff, and kept the creative flow going.

Our recent episode featuring Laravel's creator, Taylor Otwell, reminds us that software that lasts is usually simple. Check out The Register's take on this practical episode. www.theregister.com/2025/09/01/l...

We're looking forward to hearing Robby Russell moderate a panel with Rails & Ruby Core members at Rails World 2025 today!

It started as a simple solution to a very personal problem" 16 years later, Oh My Zsh has millions of users. Hear @robbyrussell on the power of open source & community.

West Dermatology’s site had a few "blemishes"—broken features, tech debt, and high-stakes enhancements. We cleaned things up, smoothed it out, and launched new features right on schedule.

Not sure if your Rails asset pipeline is a time bomb or just quirky? You’re not alone. We unpack the messy middle so you don’t have to: Sprockets → Propshaft → Webpacker → ??? Give it a good read: blog.planetargon.com/blog/entries...

🧠 Think your Rails app is “fine”? A code audit shows you where “fine” turns into fragile. Clarity > assumptions. (Especially when your roadmap depends on it.) Take a look at @robbyonrails.com post for our blog: blog.planetargon.com/blog/entries...

Day 1 as a dev shouldn’t feel like decoding a puzzle. No more “Can someone add me to this?” Check out this blog post about password managers. blog.planetargon.com/blog/entries...

Rails devs: ever stumble on a weird little method that made you rethink everything? Kabir Pathak lists 10 powerful (but often overlooked) Ruby/Rails methods that can help clean up your code fast. 💡 What’s one trick or method you swear by? 👇 🧵 medium.com/@kabirpathak...

Maintaining a legacy app isn’t just about fixing bugs—it’s about creating a sustainable foundation for future growth. Join our forever-free email course and learn practical tips from experts who’ve been in your shoes. 👉 maintainablerails.com

Rails in 2025: ⚡️ Fast 🧠 AI-friendly 💅 Hotwire got hotter 🧘 Devs slightly less burnt out Turns out Rails didn’t die, it just got smarter. Here’s how it’s aging like wine 👉https://medium.com/%40rubyroidlabs/ruby-on-rails-trends-2025-top-updates-to-boost-your-product-rubyroid-labs-207d3cdd87ec