#136 🤖 AI, Rails 7.1 EOL, and RubyGems Governance Updates

Happy Wednesday!

Here is issue #136 of our newsletter, 🤖 This special issue is all about AI... Dive into some fascinating ways AI can be incorporated into business processes and developer life as a valuable tool for coding, creativity, and effective decision-making. But first…

📰 Ruby & Rails News

• ​Rails 8.0.3 is out now! The release brings several bug fixes and performance improvements.
• ​Rails 7.1 EOL: Support ends October 1, 2025
• REXML: There's a DoS vulnerability in the REXML gem (CVE-2025-58767) that you need to know about! 🛡️ Upgrade to version 3.4.2 or later to keep your apps safe.
• RubyGems and Bundler: The future of Ruby packaging has been a focal point of recent discussions within the community. Ruby Central has moved to centralize the governance of RubyGems and Bundler, citing concerns over security and sustainability. However, longtime maintainers argue that the sudden removal of their access and roles undermines community trust and collaboration. This is an evolving situation, with ongoing dialogue:
  • ​​​Goodbye, RubyGems (PDF)​​​
  • ​​​Ruby Central: Strengthening stewardship of RubyGems & Bundler​​​
  • ​​​Freedoms Substack: reflections on open source challenges​​​
  • ​​YouTube: Update From Ruby Central​
  • ​Breakdown of Bundler and RubyGems takeover

1. 🤖 Curious how AI is reshaping higher education? OmbuLabs is sharing key insights from NERCOMP 2025, highlighting trends, challenges, and opportunities at the intersection of AI and academia. Part 1 of this series ​discussed 3 case studies that leveraged local AI to solve real-world scenarios at Williams College​.

➡️ In Part 2, Ernesto highlights a UCLA IT Services case study on AI for account provisioning, presented by Anna Ahearn and Krithik Udayashankar. AI success in higher ed requires trust, usability, and transparency—not just tech—while off-the-shelf GPTs can still provide cost-effective solutions.

2. 🎉 The OmbuLabs Blog has a fresh new look! We’ve redesigned the blog with enhanced article navigation, easier search, and improved topic-based tags to help you find exactly what you need. Check it out: OmbuLabs Blog | Custom AI Solutions​

Topics include: AI Agents | AI | ​​​​Generative AI | Machine Learning | Ethical AI

3. 🚀 Ruby AI: In an exclusive interview, José Valim, creator of Elixir, unveils Tidewave—a groundbreaking AI coding agent for Ruby on Rails. Experience real-time collaboration and deep framework integration that transforms coding. Don't miss this exciting leap in AI tooling, brought to you by Matt Solt!

Rails 7.1 EOL is here… Whether you’re a DIYer or you're looking for extra help upgrading, FastRuby has the resources for you.

Try our FREE Open Source Tools and AI Agent-powered Automated Roadmap to upgrade Rails yourself.

For those who need more...

🌳 Expand your team with our Bonsai service: Cost-effective, monthly plans with FastRuby.io senior software engineers.

4. 🚀 Ethical and practical impacts of AI in tech: Rahoul Baruah provides insights about LLMs for Software Developers (notes from his talk at NWRUG)! Discover how Claude enhances code readability and project management, blending cognitive science with Ruby expertise.

5. 🤖 Check out these RailsWorld 2025 talks!

• GitHub’s Kinsey Durham Grace shows how intelligent agents are reshaping real-world Rails apps, tracing their evolution from simple bots to multi-tool LLM-powered systems, and sharing practical patterns you can apply today. 🎥 Beyond the Prompt: Building Real-World LLM Features in Rails ​
• Shopify’s Andrew McNamara & Charlie Lee share how Sidekick leverages Rails, LLM evals, and reinforcement learning—plus what happens when models try to game their own tests. 🎥 LLM Evals & Reinforcement Learning for Shopify Sidekick on Rails​
• Paweł Strzałkowski shows how the Model Context Protocol (MCP), backed by Google and OpenAI, can bring “convention over configuration” to AI integrations, making Rails apps as seamless for AI as scaffolds once were for the web. 🎥 Make Rails AI-Ready by Design with the Model Context Protocol​

👀 Check out more FastRuby articles on: ​​​Performance​​​ | ​​Upgrades​​​​ | ​​​​Best Practices​​​​ | ​​​​Tech Debt​​​​

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Best,

The ​​​​​FastRuby.io​​​​​ Team