Rails v8.1 Development Guide

Reference documentation based on the official Rails Guides v8.1.1, organized by topic. Each reference file has a table of contents. Consult the relevant file when working on specific Rails components.

Reference Navigation

Active Record

Split across 4 files by topic:

• active_record_basics.md (5,800 lines) — Models, CRUD, naming conventions, migrations, validations, callbacks
• active_record_queries.md (2,700 lines) — Query interface, conditions, ordering, joins, eager loading, scopes, calculations
• active_record_associations.md (3,400 lines) — Association types, configuration, STI, delegated types, reference
• active_record_advanced.md (4,100 lines) — Active Model, PostgreSQL features, multiple databases, composite primary keys, encryption

Controllers & Views

• controllers.md (1,900 lines) — Action Controller basics, strong params, cookies, sessions, callbacks, CSRF, HTTP auth, streaming, error handling
• views.md (4,800 lines) — Action View, templates, partials, layouts, view helpers, form helpers, rendering