37signals Style

37signals Style Guide

Patterns derived from analysis of 37signals' Fizzy codebase. Representative, not authoritative — these reflect observed conventions, not an official 37signals document.

Topic Map

Core Rails Patterns

• references/controllers.md — Thin controllers, concerns, authentication, authorization
• references/models.md — Fat models, scopes, query objects, concerns
• references/views.md — Presenters, partials, view helpers, template conventions
• references/routing.md — RESTful design, nested resources, custom routes
• references/database.md — Schema design, indexes, migrations, query optimization

Frontend & Hotwire

• references/hotwire.md — Turbo Drive, Turbo Frames, Turbo Streams patterns
• references/stimulus.md — Stimulus controller conventions, value API, targets
• references/css.md — CSS organization, naming conventions, component patterns
• references/action-text.md — Rich text integration patterns
• references/actioncable.md — WebSocket channel patterns

Application Features

• references/authentication.md — Session management, password reset, remember me
• references/background-jobs.md — Solid Queue/ActiveJob patterns, retry strategies
• references/caching.md — Fragment caching, counter caches, cache keys
• references/email.md — Mailer conventions, transactional email patterns
• references/notifications.md — In-app notifications, notification objects
• references/filtering.md — Search and filter patterns, query objects
• references/workflows.md — Multi-step processes, state machines
• references/webhooks.md — Inbound/outbound webhook handling

Infrastructure

• references/active-storage.md — File upload conventions, image variants
• references/configuration.md — Environment config, credentials, feature flags
• references/observability.md — Logging, error tracking, instrumentation
• references/performance.md — N+1 prevention, caching strategies, query optimization
• references/security-checklist.md — OWASP checklist, Brakeman, safe patterns
• references/multi-tenancy.md — Account scoping, current attributes
• references/mobile.md — Mobile-specific patterns, PWA considerations
• references/ai-llm.md — LLM/AI integration patterns

Testing

• references/testing.md — 37signals testing approach, fixtures, minitest conventions

Philosophy & Team

• references/development-philosophy.md — Basecamp Way, calm technology, YAGNI
• references/what-they-avoid.md — Patterns 37signals deliberately avoids
• references/dhh.md — DHH's Rails principles and design opinions
• references/jorge-manrubia.md — Jorge Manrubia's contributions and patterns
• references/jason-zimdars.md — Jason Zimdars' design and UX conventions
• references/accessibility.md — Accessibility patterns and ARIA usage
• references/watching.md — Activity feeds, event tracking patterns
• references/rails-engineering-standards-and-practices.md — Engineering standards