Claude Rails Skills Plugin
A comprehensive Claude Code plugin for Rails database migrations and schema management. Get expert guidance on generating, running, and debugging migrations with best practices for development, staging, and production environments.
Features
- Interactive Migration Generation — Generate migrations using Rails magic naming conventions with automatic validation
- Environment-aware Migrations — Run, rollback, or check status in any Rails environment
- Production Safety — Built-in safeguards and best practices for production deployments
- Zero-downtime Patterns — Guidance on large table migrations without downtime
- Comprehensive Reference — Detailed docs on column types, generators, commands, troubleshooting, and advanced patterns
- Automatic Activation — Claude detects migration-related questions and provides context automatically
Quick Start
Installation
From GitHub (global):
claude plugin install full-stack-biz/claude-rails --scope user
From GitHub (project-local, shared via git):
claude plugin install full-stack-biz/claude-rails --scope project
From local path:
claude plugin install /path/to/claude-rails --scope user
Basic Usage
Once installed, use these commands in Claude Code:
/claude-rails-skills:generate AddPartNumberToProducts part_number:string:index
/claude-rails-skills:status
/claude-rails-skills:migrate
/claude-rails-skills:rollback
/claude-rails-skills:redo
/claude-rails-skills:reset
Or simply ask Claude about Rails migrations—the plugin automatically activates with relevant guidance.
Commands
Generate Migration
/claude-rails-skills:generate [name] [fields]
Create a new migration file with specified name and fields. Uses Rails convention-based naming to automatically determine the migration type.
Examples:
/claude-rails-skills:generate AddPartNumberToProducts part_number:string:index
/claude-rails-skills:generate CreateUsers name:string email:string:unique password_digest:string
/claude-rails-skills:generate AddUserRefToProducts user:references
Run Migrations
/claude-rails-skills:migrate [environment] [options]
Execute pending database migrations in the specified environment (development, test, staging, production).
Examples:
/claude-rails-skills:migrate
/claude-rails-skills:migrate production --verbose
/claude-rails-skills:migrate test --step 2
Check Status
/claude-rails-skills:status [environment]
Display which migrations have been run and which are pending.
Examples:
/claude-rails-skills:status
/claude-rails-skills:status production
Rollback Migrations
/claude-rails-skills:rollback [environment] [options]
Undo migrations. Use --version for precise control over which migration to roll back to.
Examples:
/claude-rails-skills:rollback
/claude-rails-skills:rollback production --version 20240101120000
Redo Migration
/claude-rails-skills:redo [environment]
Re-run the last migration (useful during development iteration).
Examples:
/claude-rails-skills:redo
/claude-rails-skills:redo test
Reset Database
/claude-rails-skills:reset [environment]
Reset the database to a clean state (development/test only).
Examples:
/claude-rails-skills:reset
/claude-rails-skills:reset test
Key Concepts
Magic Naming Conventions
Rails generators infer what to do from the migration name:
Create[Table] — Creates a new tableAdd[Column]To[Table] — Adds columns to existing tableRemove[Column]From[Table] — Removes columns from tableAdd[Ref]To[Table] — Adds foreign key referenceChange[Column]In[Table] — Modifies column definition
Example:
bin/rails generate migration AddPartNumberToProducts part_number:string:index
# Generates: add_column :products, :part_number, :string
# add_index :products, :part_number
Always Use the change Method
Write reversible migrations when possible:
class AddDetailsToProducts < ActiveRecord::Migration[8.1]
def change
add_column :products, :part_number, :string
add_index :products, :part_number
end
end
Use up/down only when the operation isn't reversible (rare).
Production Safety
- Always check status first before running migrations
- Never edit committed migrations — create new ones to fix issues
- Use VERSION for precise rollback (
db:migrate VERSION=timestamp) instead of STEP
- Keep backups before running migrations on production data
- Plan zero-downtime migrations for large tables (see reference docs)
Documentation
The plugin includes comprehensive reference materials:
full-stack-biz
