Ernesto TagwerkerEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

Send us Fan Mail When AI Refused to Listen and Then Became the Best Developer on the Team Rarely does a story about an AI tool actively resisting instructions end up being the most compelling argument for using that tool. When Claude initially pushed back against adding conditionals for dual booting large legacy Rails applications, the team at FastRuby had to essentially teach it their own hard-won expertise rather than letting it default to general Stack Overflow consensus. Ernesto Tagwerker from OmbuLabs and FastRuby joins Valentino Stoll and Joe Leo to unpack what that process actually looks like in practice. The conversation covers dual booting (running test suites against multiple Rails versions simultaneously), encoding human experience into AI-usable skills, and the shift toward outcome-based value rather than hourly billing. After more than 60,000 development hours across eight years of Rails upgrades, FastRuby has started consistently beating their project estimates with one human and one AI agent matching two humans' output. What does it actually mean to keep humans in the loop when AI handles ninety percent of implementation work? Ernesto argues that Ruby's readability makes it especially valuable precisely when humans need to oversee and debug AI-generated code. Genuinely, the point lands well and stays with you. Tune in for a grounded, honest look at where AI genuinely helps and where it still falls short. Mentioned in the show: Ernesto Tagwerker Ernesto Tagwerker on GitHub OmbuLabs.ai OmbuLabs.ai Open Source AI Projects & Claude Code Skills FastRuby.io FastRuby.io Team FastRuby.io Blog: Articles by Ernesto Tagwerker next_rails GitHub Repo The Next Rails Gem How to Dual Boot Rails FastRuby.io Rails Upgrade Methodology as Claude Code Skills Claude Code Rails Upgrade Skill Claude Code Dual Boot Skill Claude Code Rails Load Defaults Skill Automated Roadmap to Upgrade Rails Ruby Critic Skunk MetricFu RailsBump Ruby LLM GitHub Scientist The Well-Grounded Rubyist Minerva's New Journal

In this episode I talk with Ernesto Tagwerker about using AI for Rails upgrades, AI as an unblocking tool rather than just a speeder-upper, and the dangers of AI-generated "speculative code" that adds liability without value. Links: FastRuby.io OmbuLabs

After more than two years, Ernesto Tagwerker returns to IndieRails to chat about the changing industry landscape and running an agency in the age of AI. Ernesto is the founder of OmbuLabs , makers of FastRuby.io , and maintainers of many open source projects in Ruby and Rails. We talk about upgrading Rails apps with the help of LLMs, their fixed-cost maintenance service Bonsai , new AI-related offerings (from assessments to greenfield buildouts), and championing DX (developer experience). Mentioned in the Episode Stanford research on dev productivity w/ AI tooling (video) The Automated Roadmap Bonsai Service A Tech Debt Fighting Champion For Developers Get DX Philly.rb Canopy

In this episode, Ernesto shares his journey from freelancing to building an agency, managing a remote and international team, creating productized services, and technical sales and marketing. Find Ernesto Twitter Mastodon More about OmbuLabs OmbuLabs FastRuby.io Upgrade JS Tune Report Mentioned in the Pod Brennan Dunn Roadmapping Bureau of Digital Donut Know Your Team Nate Berkopec Kent Beck tweet ChatGPT GitHub Copilot

“The idea of productizing a service is creating a category for something that you do really well and marketing it as it is.” - Ernesto Tagwerker The finer details of this episode: Productizing services and scaling businesses Remote company culture: Benefits, team retreats, and working across time zones Niching down and pricing strategies for productized services Qualifying leads for product type services Episode resources: Summit CPA website – summitcpa.net Email us with questions or if you’d like to be a guest on the show – vcpasuccessshow@anderscpa.com OmbuLabs :: The Lean Software Boutique

In this episode of the Rubber Duck Dev Show, we discuss what happens after you run RubyCritic and see all the code recommendations. FastRuby.io RubyCritic Gem Skunk Gem

This week Ernesto Tagwerker returns for a discussion of his work upgrading Rails apps with FastRuby, the benefits of exercise and getting outside, and the ins and outs of productized services. Ernesto Tagwerker on Twitter OmbuLabs Blog Jobs at OmbuLabs FastRuby.io 30 x 500 Academy Upgradejs.com

In this episode, we discuss code quality, and how the RubyCritic & Skunk ruby gems can help. Skunk Gem RubyCritic Gem FastRuby.io

Ernesto Tagwerker is the Founder of OmbuLabs, the Ruby on Rails development shop behind FastRuby.io. He comes back to the podcast to talk about code quality: what it is, what it is perceived to be and what its like to maintain a few Ruby code quality gems, including ruby-critic and skunk. Show Notes & Links: OmbuLabs :: The Lean Software Boutique FastRuby.io 309: Upgrading Rails & Skunk for Scoring with Ernesto Tagwerker rails_stats rubycritic skunk metric_fu Eight Dimensions of Quality The Code Quality Challenge - Tuple.app Sponsored By: Honeybadger Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution. Atlantis Technology Atlantis is looking for great engineers! Why work at Atlantis? You'll work with great people. You’ll work on projects that change the world. No matter where you are in your career, they’re prepared to help you advance it. Find out more here .

Ernesto and I talk about how he learned software development, but also some business and management in his competitive public university in Argentina. We talk group projects, learning well and trying things that failed.

In this episode I talk with Ernesto Tagwerker, founder of FastRuby.io, about the topic of code quality. We discuss what code quality means as well as some tools that can assist with giving code quality proper attention. Links: FastRuby.io Ernesto Tagwerker on Twitter RuboCop Reek Skunk

[00:05:18] Ernesto gives us an introduction of who he is and what he does. [00:10:43] Ernesto talks about the last RailsConf in Minneapolis when they were all together. Andrew talks about wanting to upgrade a Rails App and how he came across Ernesto’s FastRuby that had great content, which is why he asked him to be on the show today. [00:12:39] We learn about FastRuby.io from Ernesto. He also talks about the kinds of things you need to think about before you upgrade Rails and what to do if your Test Suite isn’t that great. [00:17:51] Ernesto tells us his dream gem. Chris talks about a Chrome extension that would help write system tests based on what you wrote in the browser, and Andrew mentions the name of that gem which is “Heaven’s Door.” [00:21:08] We learn besides having a good Test Suite, the next thing you need before upgrading Rails is to have a continuous integration working, and Ernesto explains this. [00:22:21] Andrew talks about Dual Booting Rails and he’s interested in it but needs to explore it more because it sounds complicated. He asks Ernesto to explain some common issues he runs across. [00:24:12] Chris wonders if Ernesto encourages people, once they get up to Rails 6, to continue Dual Booting against Rails Master. Ernesto talks about an article they have that talks about how to stay up to date so that this painful Rails upgrade process doesn’t happen again. Andrew gives advice to strongly version your gems in your gem file which he promises will make your life easier! ☺ [00:27:18] Jason is interested in the idea of running a build against a master Rails and he’s curious how to temper that. Chris talks about fiddling with the Appraisal Gem. [00:30:51] Ernesto talks about how he recently started maintaining a gem called RubyCritic, and he explains what it does. [00:34:09] Chris asks Ernesto how much he sees Ruby related things needing to be fixed when you’re upgrading apps versus gems and rails configuration things. He mentions Rails LTS, which is long time support for Rails. [00:36:59] Ernesto tells us a new service they are working on called, State Updated Service, which is a Rails service to keep your application up to date. [00:41:59] Ernesto gives a list of resources that people can look at to upgrade their Rails App. Panelists: Jason Charnes Andrew Mason Chris Oliver Guest: Ernesto Tagwerker Sponsor: Honeybadger Links: Ernesto Tagwerker Twitter Ernesto Tagwerker GitHub OmbuLabs OmbuLabs Twitter FastRuby.io Twitter Ernesto Tagwerker-Open Source: When Nights and Weekends Are Not Enough-Southeast Ruby 2017- YouTube Fast Ruby- The Complete Guide to Upgrade Rails e-book Heaven’s Door How to Stay Up to date with Your Rails Application Appraisal-GitHub RubyCritic-GitHub Rails LTS Ten Years of Rails Upgrades-GitHub RailsDiff <a hre

Imagine if there were a tool to help you measure your code’s complexity, coverage, and smells, blend it all together and present you with an average score assessing your technical debt. SkunkScore is precisely such a tool. Today we talk with Ernesto Tagwerker, founder of Ombu Labs and fastruby.io—and the developer of the SkunkScore—about software maintenance and how to use SkunkScore to identify the most problematic parts of your code and guide you through your refactoring adventure. Mentioned in this episode: Ernesto on Twitter at https://twitter.com/etagwerker Ernesto on GitHub at https://github.com/etagwerker Ombu Labs at https://www.ombulabs.com Fastruby at https://www.fastruby.io Download SkunkScore at https://github.com/fastruby/skunk

Ernesto Tagwerker is the Founder of Ombu Labs, a small software development company dedicated to building lean code and reducing tech debt. He and Brittany enthusiastically discuss blockers in upgrading Rails, tech debt and Ernesto's future plans for his code scoring library, Skunk. Links for this episode: Ombu Labs - The Lean Software Boutique Fast Ruby - Ruby on Rails Upgrades by Ombu Labs fastruby / skunk | A StinkScore Calculator for Ruby Code Ernesto Tagwerker (@etagwerker) | Twitter Episode Music by Kevin MacLeod Episode Introduction and Outro by Michael Springer

Ernesto is back and this time we're talking upgrading Rails, speaking at conferences, how to find freelancing clients, and how to assess code quality. Ernesto Tagwerker on Twitter Ernesto Tagwerker on GitHub Ombu Labs Fast Ruby Ernesto Tagwerker's Blog Posts at Fast Ruby

Ombu Labs Fast Ruby Ernesto on Twitter Chris Oliver X/Twitter Andrew Mason X/Twitter Jason Charnes X/Twitter

In this episode, Ernesto Tagwerker and I discuss how we approach working on large Rails applications, methods for writing useful tests in a large application setting, and we extend an invitation to join us for some Nashville hot chicken in August at Southeast Ruby. Ernesto Tagwerker on Twitter Ernesto Tagwerker on GitHub Ombu Labs Fast Ruby Component Based Rails Applications Trailblazer Southeast Ruby Conference