Sometimes the best conference conversations start with a weird idea.

Rachael Wright-Munn and Andy Andrea join me to revisit a moment at RubyConf when Andy's experiment with schemas and MCP tools collided with a problem Rachel had been trying to solve for Ruby Events: how to make Rails generators easily accessible to AI.

What started as an excited post-talk conversation quickly became an in-person pair programming session, and eventually working MCP tooling that Rachel now uses to maintain Ruby Events. The result has reduced some event updates from more than an hour of manual work to roughly 10–15 minutes.

They dig into how MCP tools work, why wrapping deterministic Rails generators can make AI workflows more reliable, and the tradeoffs between MCP, CLIs, skills, and letting models manipulate files directly. The conversation expands into harness engineering, metaprogramming, Git worktrees, dev containers, tool calling, and the strange reality that even developers deeply immersed in AI still feel like they're constantly trying to catch up.

It's a conversation about Ruby, AI, developer tooling—and the kind of serendipitous collaboration that still makes getting together at Ruby conferences so valuable.

** Sponsor **
Judoscale - https://judoscale.com

Andy Kroll joins the podcast to talk about Brighton Ruby, the impact AI is having on software development, and how the changing technology landscape is affecting everything from conference budgets to engineering teams.

Andy shares how tools like Claude Code have changed his day-to-day work, making previously neglected projects more achievable while putting even more emphasis on code review, judgment, and maintaining a sustainable Rails application. They also dig into one of the harder questions created by AI: how do you interview software engineers when take-home coding exercises and traditional technical tests are increasingly easy to hand off to a model?

Andy explains how CoverageBook is approaching hiring by focusing on product thinking, decision-making, real-world code review, and conversations that more closely resemble actually working together.

The conversation also turns to the challenges of organizing Brighton Ruby, why Andy is taking a year off from the conference, David’s interest in someday organizing a Ruby conference of his own, and why keeping financial risk under control may be the most important lesson for a first-time conference organizer.

Finally, they look ahead to Rails World and reflect on one of the biggest reasons conferences still matter: getting Ruby developers out from behind their screens and into a room with people who understand what they do.

Sponsor

• Judoscale: https://judoscale.com/

Rails Foundation Executive Director Amanda Perino joins David to preview Rails World 2026, the conference’s first year in the United States.

Amanda shares how the team is bringing Austin’s personality into the event through live music, barbecue, sponsor experiences, a mechanical bull, the returning Buzzsprout podcast booth, and Rails World’s biggest lightning-talk stage yet. She also discusses the opening keynote livestream, the lightning-talk CFP, ticket availability, and what attendees should expect as the conference approaches.

The conversation then turns to the Rails Foundation itself. Amanda explains how the rapid growth of AI has forced the organization to reconsider how it executes its mission across events, marketing, documentation, and education. They also discuss the challenge of building a conference program that serves developers interested in AI without neglecting everything else happening in Ruby and Rails.

Finally, Amanda surprises David with an extra ticket to Rails World—and they decide to give it away to a podcast listener.

Enter the Rails World ticket giveaway:
https://forms.gle/LoLvTfJ2BFavpox69

Sponsor

• Judoscale: https://judoscale.com/

Making new Ruby Friends is one of my favorite parts of attending conferences. Neha Abraham joins me to chat about RubyConf, Mental Health, Data Aggregation, and being my Nemesis

While at RubyConf, I caught up with several attendees and volunteers to discuss their experiences. These quick interviews have been collected for this episode.

Our Guests
Charles Nutter
Miguel Filho
Cameron Dutro
Nico Roulston

With AI seeming to generate more code every day, we need better tools to verify that it hasn't broken something. Maybe mutation testing can help us get there. Markus Schirp chats with us about the mutant gem and mutation testing.

Show Notes

• https://github.com/mbj/mutant

Sponsors
Lots of teams out there are still overpaying for their hosting and getting tripped up by traffic spikes. If you’re on one of those teams, you need a better autoscaler. Judoscale uses better metrics, gives you more control, and reacts faster than any other autoscaler. Learn more at https://judoscale.com/

Blue Ridge Ruby made a comeback in 2026 and Jeremy Smith joins the podcast to talk about how it went

Show Notes

• https://blueridgeruby.com/

Sponsors
Lots of teams out there are still overpaying for their hosting and getting tripped up by traffic spikes. If you’re on one of those teams, you need a better autoscaler. Judoscale uses better metrics, gives you more control, and reacts faster than any other autoscaler. Learn more at https://judoscale.com/

Travis Dockter wanted a Ruby conference closer to home, so he made one. Today we chat about the ups and downs of putting together a brand new conference.

Show Notes

• https://www.blastoffrails.com/
• https://rubyconferenceproject.com/
• https://game.blastoffrails.com/

Sponsors
Lots of teams out there are still overpaying for their hosting and getting tripped up by traffic spikes. If you’re on one of those teams, you need a better autoscaler. Judoscale uses better metrics, gives you more control, and reacts faster than any other autoscaler. Learn more at https://judoscale.com/

Rachael interviews the new host of the show, David Hill, to discuss his history with Ruby, his love for podcasting, and how much he loves meetups and conferences.

Show Notes

• https://www.odetorailsconf.com/
• http://rubygemspodcast.com/
• https://www.remoteruby.com/

Sponsors
Lots of teams out there are still overpaying for their hosting and getting tripped up by traffic spikes. If you’re on one of those teams, you need a better autoscaler. Judoscale uses better metrics, gives you more control, and reacts faster than any other autoscaler. Learn more at https://judoscale.com/