ce-andrew-kane-gem-writer

Andrew Kane Gem Writer

Write Ruby gems following Andrew Kane's battle-tested patterns from 100+ gems with 374M+ downloads (Searchkick, PgHero, Chartkick, Strong Migrations, Lockbox, Ahoy, Blazer, Groupdate, Neighbor, Blind Index).

Core Philosophy

Simplicity over cleverness. Zero or minimal dependencies. Explicit code over metaprogramming. Rails integration without Rails coupling. Every pattern serves production use cases.

Entry Point Structure

Every gem follows this exact pattern in lib/gemname.rb:

# 1. Dependencies (stdlib preferred)
require "forwardable"

# 2. Internal modules
require_relative "gemname/model"
require_relative "gemname/version"

# 3. Conditional Rails (CRITICAL - never require Rails directly)
require_relative "gemname/railtie" if defined?(Rails)

# 4. Module with config and errors
module GemName
  class Error < StandardError; end
  class InvalidConfigError < Error; end

  class << self
    attr_accessor :timeout, :logger
    attr_writer :client
  end

  self.timeout = 10  # Defaults set immediately
end

Class Macro DSL Pattern

The signature Kane pattern—single method call configures everything:

# Usage