Ruby Idioms

Ruby Idioms and Patterns

Ruby rewards expressiveness, convention, and developer happiness. Modern Ruby (3.x) favors pattern matching, Ractor for concurrency, and strict typing via Sorbet/RBS. Idiomatic Ruby = readable, tested, convention-following.

Scope: Ruby coding idioms. Test naming: GEMINI.md § Testing Strategy. Logging: @.gemini/skills/logging-and-observability-principles/SKILL.md.

Modern Ruby Features (3.x)

1. Pattern matching:

   case result
   in { status: :success, data: Task => task }
     render json: task
   in { status: :not_found, id: String => id }
     render json: { error: "Task #{id} not found" }, status: :not_found
   end
   

2. Endless methods for simple accessors:

   def full_name = "#{first_name} #{last_name}"
   

3. Data class (3.2+) for immutable value objects:

   TaskResult = Data.define(:task, :status)
   result = TaskResult.new(task: task, status: :created)
   

Error Handling

1. Domain exception hierarchies:

   class DomainError < StandardError; end
   
   class NotFoundError < DomainError
     attr_reader :resource, :resource_id
     def initialize(resource, resource_id)
       @resource = resource
       @resource_id = resource_id
       super("#{resource} '#{resource_id}' not found")
     end
   end
   

2. rescue specific exceptions — never bare rescue.

3. Use ensure for cleanup — equivalent to finally.

Naming

1. snake_case for methods, variables, file names.
2. PascalCase for classes, modules.
3. UPPER_SNAKE_CASE for constants.
4. ? suffix for boolean queries: active?, valid?.
5. ! suffix for destructive or dangerous methods: save!, delete!.

Testing

1. RSpec (preferred) or Minitest:

   RSpec.describe TaskService do
     describe '#create' do
       it 'creates a task with valid attributes' do
         task = service.create(title: 'Test', priority: :high)
         expect(task.title).to eq('Test')
       end
   
       it 'raises ValidationError for blank title' do
         expect { service.create(title: '', priority: :high) }
           .to raise_error(ValidationError)
       end
     end
   end
   

2. let for lazy setup, before for eager setup.

3. Factory Bot for test data — never fixtures for complex models.

Formatting and Static Analysis

Related

• Code Idioms and Conventions GEMINI.md § Code Idioms and Conventions
• Testing Strategy GEMINI.md § Testing Strategy
• Error Handling Principles GEMINI.md § Error Handling Principles