Ruby Central

Run [80, 68, 88].pack("c*") in irb, then fill in the blank: Keep ______ Weird. Weird Ruby is going to feel right at home. Final answers?

The Goonies went treasure hunting on this state's coast. Our host city is a couple hours up the road from where Mikey and the gang found One-Eyed Willy's ship. Which way is your map pointing?

Our host city got its name from a coin toss. Two founders, one penny, best two out of three. If it had landed the other way, it would be called Boston. Any detectives cracked it yet?

Time for the "when." Fire up irb and run: require "date" Date::MONTHNAMES.compact.find { |m| m.length == 3 } That's your month. The days are still classified. Bonus points if you cracked it without irb. What did you get?

Ok, zooming a bit more out from last week's clue... Our favorite language is named after a red gem. Our 2027 city is nicknamed after a famously red flower. Full-circle moment? We think so. Name that city.

Exhibit A. We're keeping this one zoomed in for now, but stay tuned for the "enhance" moment. What are you seeing?

Our 2027 host city is home to a park so small it holds a Guinness World Record. Blink and you'll walk right past it. Where do you think we're headed?

RubyConf 2027 has a city and a date. We know. You don't... Yet.🥸 Hint drops start next week, so sharpen your pencils (and your irb). Wild guesses welcome below.

The talk at #Rubyconf that made the biggest impression on me was Alicia Rojas' about making the transition from humans reviewing AI written code, to AI also being responsible for all code review. It’s an excellent and substantial talk, not hype. toppa.com/2026/pairing... @rubycentral.org

The RubyGems team has published an update on the May spam-publishing campaign on rubygems.org, following recent reporting from The Wall Street Journal and research from Nightingale Collective. buff.ly/qU21FCK

Three days of Beautiful Ruby, Weird Ruby, and Living with the Robots @ RubyConf. Lots of feelings about where Ruby is headed. YJIT. Ractors. AI that doesn't feel like a compromise. A generation who's never known life without Rails. What excites you most about Ruby's future?

RubyGems.org now handles tens of billions of gem downloads a year with modern auth, verifiable publishing, and 24/7 coverage. Thanks to Ruby Shield, our 4-year security partnership with Shopify. Here's our reflection as it wraps up: buff.ly/YwpC9qK

You should go check out @tessgriffin.bsky.social's talk if you didn't see it in person! youtu.be/Yuh8W0O4iuE?...

They are here🎉 The RubyConf 2026 talk recordings are officially live. Every keynote, every session, every moment you wished you could have been in two rooms at once. buff.ly/ui5I84d Which one are you watching first?

The August 2026 README is here. We're behind the curtain this month: What's going on at Ruby Central, the engineering team shares updates on GSoC and security work, and much more. Read the full newsletter → buff.ly/qRXbGGy

This week: Reuter Regis (Rjort). "To this day, Ruby is the language with the most beautiful syntax and readability for me." A considered opinion from someone who has seen the alternatives. Ruby still wins. What's your Why I Ruby? We'd love to share it: buff.ly/meSu90d

Meet Shuveksha Tuladhar, one of our RubyConf 2026 Scholars! She gave her first-ever lightning talk, made new friends, and even got to meet Matz at her first RubyConf. Read her story: buff.ly/WxbO4Xr

We have been sharing Ruby community stories, and we want more of them🥰 Someone out there is going to read your story and feel less alone in theirs. Three prompts, one form, no minimum word count: Why I Ruby... My Ruby Story Started... I Wish I Knew/Heard... buff.ly/c0CUYwc

MINASWAN in action: Ruby Central's Scholars & Guides Program pairs aspiring Rubyists with experienced mentors at RubyConf. Scholars find their footing. Guides find it just as rewarding. Full story: buff.ly/MG4w3fV

We see your DMs. We hear you. We feel the anticipation. The RubyConf 2026 talk recordings are coming. Sit tight. We will make some noise when they drop. What talk are you most eager to rewatch or catch for the first time?

RubyConf 2026 merch closes after Labor Day, September 7. This is your last chance to get RubyConf apparel and the conference mug before they're gone for good. Shop before September 7: buff.ly/R7BtiLv

If you could only walk away with one swag item, what is actually worth the bag space?👀 No wrong answers. 1️⃣ Small and packable (stickers, pins, keychains) 2️⃣ A t-shirt 3️⃣ A tote or bag 4️⃣ Something useful (mug, tumbler, tech accessory) 5️⃣ Other (tell us!) Share below🧐

Meet KJ Loving, one of our RubyConf 2026 Scholars! KJ found Ruby through Code the Dream and The Odin Project, and found a community that felt like home. Read their story, including advice for first-time conference attendees. Read KJ's full story: buff.ly/bb9ITV4

Ruby Runway Spotlight: Stowzilla turns your unused stuff into a searchable digital inventory, then stores, sells, or returns it for you. Built in Ruby by a team with roots at NASA. Here's their story. 👉️ buff.ly/JBPY3ev

Something happens at RubyConf every year that is hard to explain to people who have not been. You walk in as a developer. You walk out remembering why you became one. MINISWAN is not just a saying. It is what this community is. What does Ruby mean to you right now?

‘tis the season. Headed Westward for an @xoruby.com event in Seattle this Saturday. Six hours on the road yesterday 14 today. xoruby.com/event/seattl...

Every year the Scholars and Guides program reminds us why we do this. This year's cohort showed up with curiosity, courage, and stories that made our hearts soar. Beautiful gems, every one. To every Scholar and Guide at RubyConf 2026: thank you. You belong here. Always have.

🎉Welcome to the Ruby Alliance, Rubyroid Labs!💎 We're excited to welcome them as a Ruby Alliance Supporter. Their investment helps sustain the Ruby ecosystem and the open source infrastructure developers rely on every day. Thanks for supporting Ruby!❤️ buff.ly/phUkXGo

Ruby Runway Spotlight: Joe Masilotti's Ruby Native ships real native iOS and Android apps from your existing Rails HTML and ERB. No Swift, no Kotlin. Here's his story, and his advice on charging early to test an idea fast. Read here👉️ buff.ly/z2dXxeY

Show us your people: Ruby friends from the start, the ones you finally fist-bumped after years of calls and pull request comments, & the new faces becoming your people. Drop RubyConf'26 photos below. Old friends, new friends, all of it! Creating a public photo album together~

The July README is out! RubyConf 2026 retrospective, community spotlights, and a new way to support RubyGems.org. Read it here → buff.ly/PyLKPGu

Ruby Runway Spotlight: Michael Carroll of Coolhand Labs built an AI observability tool that cuts agent costs over 50%, and still maintains a Ruby gem when most AI dev tools have moved on. Here's his story. buff.ly/JtmBLCK

PSA: Critical Rails security release - a bug in Active Storage variant processing can allow unauthenticated users to read arbitrary files, including app secrets. Upgrade now. github.com/rails/rails/...

What's the moment from RubyConf 2026 you're never going to forget? The talk that wrecked you. The lunch conversation that somehow lasted four hours. Meeting a GitHub username in person for the first time. No moment is too small. Tell us.

Turns out RubyConf wasn't just full of coding magic. 🎩✨ Huge thanks to Flagrant for bringing an amazing magician to the conference! The tricks, laughs, and "wait...WHAT?!" moments made for a memorable experience between sessions.

Scholars & Guides spotlight: Madeline Caples wrote a great mini-project on building a workflow for learning to code with AI as a study partner, not a shortcut. Developed while building a Rails Notes app at RubyConf 2026. Go give them a read and a follow. Madeline's blog👉️

Cheering solo founders and two-person teams shipping Ruby apps that solve real problems for people. No Series A or microservices blog posts, just a domain and an idea that works. Building in that space? Tell me the problem you're solving and who it's for.

RubyConf 2026 is a wrap. We laughed, learned, and stayed up late doing karaoke...Turned debates into conversations about why we do this. This community keeps the energy and friendships alive after the conference. What's one thing you're taking home?

Security Advisory: Possible exposure of legacy RubyGems.org API keys. If you use RubyGems client < v3.2.0 or a legacy API key, review your account. No evidence of malicious use. Scoped API keys are not affected. buff.ly/u0xAec3

Ruby Runway Spotlight: Paresh Sharma built Viveture (a pet sitter marketplace that takes zero cut from bookings) solo, on Rails, in under a year. Here's his story and his advice for devs sitting on a startup idea. Read more👉️ buff.ly/YPuOkgJ

RubyConf may be over, but conferences keep coming. How do you reset after a few days of nonstop talking, learning, and socializing? Ours: sleep. A lot of it. What's your recovery ritual?

RubyConf 2026: a wrap. Keynotes from Obie Fernandez and Dave Thomas, a Matz Q&A with tenderlove (ask about the AI-scented candle intern interview), and an ice cream social to close it out. Gonna now take a nap. Safe travels home, everyone.

Day 2 of RubyConf 2026: the "Once a Maintainer" panel with Allison Pike, Jeremy Evans, Colby Swandale & Richard Schneeman, workshops, Hack Spaces, Birds of a Feather, the Future of Ruby panel, Ruby Runway startup pitches, Lightning Talks, and Game Night. Final day is here.

🎊 Big news🎊 from our partners at the Ruby Association: starting this October, Japanese companies can support RubyGems.org in Yen through a local liaison, removing a real barrier to backing the infrastructure their teams use every day. Full announcement: buff.ly/edKJ5JG

Day 1 of RubyConf 2026: Matz's opening keynote, an incredible lineup of session speakers, celebrating our 7 Ruby Luminary Awardees, and closing out with Jessica Kerr asking "Who We Are Now?" in an age of AI-assisted coding. Onward to Day 2.

Travel day🚗✈️ Safe flights, smooth drives, no delays. When you land, you're 20 minutes from one of the best resort backdrops we've ever had for this conference. Get settled, find your people tonight, and come ready tomorrow. We'll see you at RubyConf.

2 days out. The hallway track at RubyConf is half the conference. The conversations that happen between sessions, over lunch, waiting for the elevator... some of the best ones you'll have all year. 👉️ rubyconf.org

3 days out. If you haven't been to Red Rock Canyon: 15 minutes from the Strip, stunning, and a nature break that eases conference-snack guilt. Good for a morning or evening. 📍 Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

4 days out. Packing checklist, RubyConf edition: Laptop + chargers ✅ Layers (Vegas AC is brutal) ✅ Sunscreen (for brave adventurers) ✅ Your fave board game for Game Night ✅ Your best celeb impersonations ✅ Game Night on Day 2 is legendary. Bring something worth playing.

5 days until RubyConf Las Vegas🤩 If you're flying July 13th, you're in good company. What excites you most: a talk, reuniting with yearly friends, the hallway track, or Hack Spaces? We're one week out and the anticipation is real.