$1,500 · 5 business days
Upgrade assessment
- Version path for Rails and Ruby, step by step
- Gem compatibility and the blockers in each step
- Deprecation inventory and test coverage gaps
- A risk register and a fixed quote for the upgrade
Ruby on Rails modernization
Rails upgrades for apps you can't afford to break.
We bring long-lived Rails applications up to date: framework and Ruby upgrades, security backlogs, legacy front ends, and the test coverage that makes each change safe. Senior engineers only.
Case study
A 21-application HR SaaS platform
Hundreds of client organizations, a 12-gem internal library, and two engineers. Our principal led the fleet from end-of-life versions to current Rails in under six months, without a rewrite.
21applications and 12 internal gems upgraded
4,600CoffeeScript and Hamlc files converted to ES6
52%→89%test coverage across the fleet, before the risky work
500+high and critical security alerts resolved
rails 5.1 → 5.2 → 6.0 (zeitwerk) → 6.1 → 7.0 → 7.1 / 7.2 · ruby 2.4–2.6 → 3.x (keyword args) → 3.2 / 3.3 · elasticsearch 2.x → 8 · 80+ repos → ~40
Services
Fixed scopes, fixed prices
Every engagement starts with an assessment, so the quote for the real work rests on your codebase rather than a guess.
Fixed quote after assessment
Rails and Ruby upgrades
- One minor version at a time, dual-booted where it helps
- Zeitwerk, keyword arguments, Webpacker and Sprockets exits
- Every step deployable and reversible
- Handover notes your team can repeat next time
Fixed quote after assessment
Legacy rescue
- Dependabot and security alert backlogs, cleared and kept clear
- CoffeeScript, Hamlc and asset pipeline migrations
- Sinatra and Padrino services consolidated into Rails
- Elasticsearch major-version upgrades with a planned reindex
Fixed quote after assessment
Leave Heroku
- Move to Render, Kamal on your own servers, or AWS, with costs compared first
- Staged cutover: app servers and workers first, database and DNS last
- Database moved under a short, scheduled write freeze
- We run our own Rails production on Render
From $1,500
AI for Rails teams
- Claude Code set up for your codebase, with custom agent skills
- AI features in your Rails app: extraction, classification, review queues
- Cost caps, human review and tests from the first commit
Approach
The order is the method
Big upgrades fail when the risky change comes before the safety net. We sequence the work so each step makes the next one cheaper.
step 1
Coverage before change
We raise test coverage where the upgrade will touch, before touching it. On the case study that meant 52% to 89% first.
step 2
One version at a time
Each minor version ships on its own, with deprecations fixed while they are still warnings, so a failure points at one cause.
step 3
Machines convert, people verify
Agent tooling does the repetitive conversion. A separate audit pass, never the same one that generated the change, checks the output.
step 4
Fix the class, not the instance
When a defect turns up, we look for every other place it can occur and fix them together, so it stays fixed across the fleet.
Open source
The method is public
Rails Modernization Skills is the toolkit behind the case study: eight Claude Code skills for coverage work, Rails and Ruby upgrades, failure triage, security remediation, asset conversion, index audits and an independent review pass.
View on GitHub# rails-modernization-skills
test-coverage-writer coverage where the change lands
rails-upgrader one minor version at a time
ruby-upgrader keyword args and the gems
upgrade-failure-triage failures sorted by root cause
dependency-security-fixer clear the alert backlog
legacy-asset-converter CoffeeScript and Hamlc out
conversion-auditor a separate review pass
index-auditor find the missing indexes
Who you work with
Senior, small, and accountable
Every engagement is led by a principal engineer with twelve years in Ruby on Rails, who writes the code, owns the deploys, and answers for the result. Larger projects add senior Rails specialists.
We work with US teams on Eastern time, Monday to Friday, and reply within one business day.
Based in Western New York · remote across the US
Prefer email?
hello@heartwoodsoftware.com