Skill Rails Upgrade

The Rails Upgrade skill automates the process of upgrading Ruby on Rails applications to newer versions. It handles complex dependency resolution, database migrations, and asset pipeline updates with minimal manual intervention.

When to use it

• You need to move a legacy Rails app from version 5.x or 6.x to the latest stable release.
• Your team wants to adopt new Rails features while ensuring backward compatibility where possible.
• You require automated scripts to handle gem version conflicts and deprecation warnings across your stack.
• You are preparing an application for security patches available only in newer Rails versions.

Key capabilities

• Automatically identifies outdated gems and suggests compatible upgrades.
• Generates necessary database migration files for schema changes introduced in new versions.
• Updates configuration files to align with breaking changes in the latest Rails release.
• Provides a rollback plan if the upgrade process encounters critical errors.

Example prompts

• "Upgrade my Rails 6.1 application to version 7.2 and list all breaking changes."
• "Automatically update all gems in my Gemfile to their latest compatible versions for Rails 7."
• "Generate a step-by-step migration plan to move from Ruby 3.0 to Ruby 3.3 within my Rails app."

Tips & gotchas

Ensure your application's database is backed up before running any automated upgrade scripts, as schema migrations can sometimes fail on complex legacy data structures. Always test the upgraded application in a staging environment first to catch potential compatibility issues with third-party services or custom code.