Workflow: Engine Development (60)

When to use: Create, extract, or maintain Rails engines.

Main Flow: New Engine

graph TB
    subgraph Scaffold [🔧 Phase 1: Scaffold]
        direction TB
        A[create-engine] --> B[test-engine]
        B --> C{Tests pass?}
        C -- No --> D[Fix setup]
        D --> B
    end

    subgraph Document [📝 Phase 2: Document]
        direction TB
        C -- Yes --> E[document-engine]
        E --> F[create-engine-installer]
    end

    subgraph Review [🔍 Phase 3: Review]
        direction TB
        F --> G[review-engine]
        G --> H{Findings?}
        H -- Yes --> I[Fix issues]
        I --> G
    end

    subgraph Release [🚀 Phase 4: Release]
        direction TB
        H -- No --> J[release-engine]
        J --> K[upgrade-engine]
        K --> L((Release gem))
    end

    %% Minimalist styling
    style Scaffold fill:#f5f5f5,stroke:#333,stroke-dasharray: 5 5
    style Document fill:#e1f5fe,stroke:#01579b
    style Review fill:#f3e5f5,stroke:#4a148c
    style Release fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#1b5e20
    style C fill:#ffd54f
    style H fill:#ffd54f

Engine Skills Sequence

1. create-engine

Goal: Initial scaffolding.

• Engine type (Plain, Railtie, Engine, Mountable)
• Namespace isolation
• Host-app contract
• File structure

2. test-engine

Goal: Testing framework.

• Dummy app setup
• Request specs
• Routing specs
• Generator specs

3. document-engine

Goal: Complete documentation.

• README: installation, mounting, configuration
• Usage examples
• Extension points

4. create-engine-installer

Goal: Installation generators.

• Idempotent setup tasks
• Copy migrations
• Initializer generator
• Route mount setup

5. review-engine

Goal: Complete review.

• Namespace boundaries
• Host integration
• Safe initialization
• Test coverage

6. release-engine

Goal: Versioned release.

• Changelog
• Migration guide
• Version bump
• Gem build & publish

7. upgrade-engine

Goal: Cross-version stability.

• Zeitwerk autoloading
• CI matrix (Rails versions)
• Feature detection (no Rails.version branching)

Alternative Flow: Extraction

flowchart LR
    A[Host app code] --> B[extract-engine]
    B --> C[refactor-code]
    C --> D[Characterization tests]
    D --> E[create-engine]
    E --> F[test-engine]

Key rule: Don't extract and change behavior in the same step.

API Endpoints in Engines

If the engine exposes HTTP endpoints:

engine skills → generate-api-collection

Generate or update Postman Collection for testing.

Skills in this Workflow