Description
An alternative to `bundle gem` with improved documentation, enhanced developer environment setup, code quality defaults, and much more. Uses high quality defaults but can be customized as desired.
Gemsmith alternatives and similar gems
Based on the "CLI Builder" category.
Alternatively, view Gemsmith alternatives based on common mentions on social networks and blogs.
Judoscale - Save 47% on cloud hosting with autoscaling that just works

* Code Quality Rankings and insights are calculated and provided by Lumnify.
They vary from L1 to L5 with "L5" being the highest.
Do you think we are missing an alternative of Gemsmith or a related project?
Popular Comparisons
README
Gemsmith
A command line interface for smithing new Ruby gems.
<!-- Tocer[start]: Auto-generated, don't remove. -->
Table of Contents
- Features
- Screencasts
- Requirements
- Setup
- Usage
- Tests
- Security
- Private Gem Servers
- Promotion
- Troubleshooting
- Versioning
- Code of Conduct
- Contributions
- License
- History
- Credits
<!-- Tocer[finish]: Auto-generated, don't remove. -->
Features
- Builds a gem skeleton with enhanced Bundler functionality.
- Uses Refinements Ruby core library enhancements.
- Uses Versionaire for semantic versioning.
- Uses Runcom for resource configuration management.
- Uses Milestoner for consistent project/gem versioning.
- Uses Pragmater for Ruby source pragma directives.
- Uses Tocer for README table of contents generation.
- Supports Bundler Audit.
- Supports Circle CI.
- Supports Git Cop.
- Supports GitHub.
- Supports Guard.
- Supports Pry.
- Supports Reek.
- Supports RSpec.
- Supports Rubocop.
- Supports Rubocop RSpec.
- Supports Ruby on Rails.
- Supports RubyGems Security.
- Supports SimpleCov.
- Supports Thor.
- Supports common settings and a structured layout for building gems.
- Supports publishing to public or private gem servers.
- Provides common documentation:
- [README](README.md)
- [CHANGES](CHANGES.md)
- [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md)
- [CODE OF CONDUCT](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)
- [LICENSE](LICENSE.md)
- Aids in viewing source code of semantically versioned gems within your favorite editor.
- Aids in viewing documentation of semantically versioned within your default browser.
Screencasts
Requirements
- A UNIX-based system.
- Ruby 2.7.x.
- RubyGems.
- Bundler.
Setup
Install
Type the following to install:
gem install gemsmith
Configuration
This gem can be configured via a global configuration:
~/.config/gemsmith/configuration.yml
It can also be configured via XDG environment variables.
The default configuration is as follows:
:year: <current year>
:github_user: "<Git config GitHub user>",
:gem:
:label: "Undefined"
:name: "undefined"
:path: "undefined"
:class: "Undefined"
:platform: "Gem::Platform::RUBY"
:url: "https://github.com/<author>/<gem name>"
:license: "MIT"
:author:
:name: "<Git config user name>"
:email: "<Git config user email>"
:url: ""
:organization:
:name: ""
:url: ""
:versions:
:ruby: "<current Ruby version>"
:rails: "5.1"
:generate:
:bundler_audit: true
:circle_ci: false
:cli: false
:engine: false
:git_cop: true
:git_hub: true
:guard: true
:pry: true
:reek: true
:rspec: true
:rubocop: true
:simple_cov: true
:security: false
:publish:
:sign: false
Feel free to take this default configuration, modify, and save as your own custom
configuration.yml
.
Existing Gems
If you have gems that were not originally crafted by Gemsmith, you can add Gemsmith support to them by modifying the following files:
Add the following to your gem's *.gemspec
file:
spec.add_development_dependency "gemsmith"
Replace or add a modified version of the following to your gem's Rakefile
:
# frozen_string_literal: true
begin
require "gemsmith/rake/setup"
rescue LoadError => error
puts error.message
end
NOTE: Ensure require "bundler/gem_tasks"
is removed as Gemsmith replaces Bundler functionality.
With those changes, you can leverage the benefits of Gemsmith within your existing gem.
Usage
Command Line Interface (CLI)
From the command line, type: gemsmith --help
gemsmith -c, [--config] # Manage gem configuration.
gemsmith -g, [--generate=GEM] # Generate new gem.
gemsmith -h, [--help=COMMAND] # Show this message or get help for a command.
gemsmith -o, [--open=GEM] # Open a gem in default editor.
gemsmith -r, [--read=GEM] # Open a gem in default browser.
gemsmith -v, [--version] # Show gem version.
For more gem generation options, type: gemsmith --help --generate
[--bundler-audit], [--no-bundler-audit] # Add Bundler Audit support.
# Default: true
[--circle-ci], [--no-circle-ci] # Add Circle CI support.
[--cli], [--no-cli] # Add CLI support.
[--engine], [--no-engine] # Add Rails Engine support.
[--git-cop], [--no-git-cop] # Add Git Cop support.
# Default: true
[--git-hub], [--no-git-hub] # Add GitHub support.
# Default: true
[--guard], [--no-guard] # Add Guard support.
# Default: true
[--pry], [--no-pry] # Add Pry support.
# Default: true
[--reek], [--no-reek] # Add Reek support.
# Default: true
[--rspec], [--no-rspec] # Add RSpec support.
# Default: true
[--rubocop], [--no-rubocop] # Add Rubocop support.
# Default: true
[--security], [--no-security] # Add security support.
Rake
Once a gem skeleton has been created, the following tasks are available (i.e. bundle exec rake
-T
):
rake build # Build example-0.1.0.gem package
rake bundle:audit # Updates the ruby-advisory-db then runs bundle-audit
rake clean # Clean gem artifacts
rake code_quality # Run code quality checks
rake git_cop # Run Git Cop
rake install # Install example-0.1.0.gem package
rake publish # Build, tag as 0.1.0 (unsigned), and push example-0.1.0.gem to RubyGems
rake reek # Check for code smells
rake rubocop # Run RuboCop
rake rubocop:auto_correct # Auto-correct RuboCop offenses
rake spec # Run RSpec code examples
rake toc # Update Table of Contents (README)
NOTE: Some tasks might differ depending on what options you enabled/disabled during gem generation.
When building/testing your gem locally, a typical workflow is:
bundle exec rake install
- Test your gem locally.
- Repeat until satisfied.
When satified with your gem, builds are green, and ready to publish, run:
bundle exec rake publish
Tests
To test, run:
bundle exec rake
Security
Git Signing Key
To securely sign your Git tags, install and configure GPG:
brew install gpg
gpg --gen-key
When creating your GPG key, choose these settings:
- Key kind: RSA and RSA (default)
- Key size: 4096
- Key validity: 0
- Real Name:
<your name>
- Email:
<your email>
- Passphrase:
<your passphrase>
To obtain your key, run the following and take the part after the forward slash:
gpg --list-keys | grep pub
Add your key to your global Git configuration in the [user]
section. Example:
[user]
signingkey = <your GPG key>
Now, when publishing your gems with Gemsmith (i.e. bundle exec rake publish
), signing of your Git
tag will happen automatically. You will be prompted for the GPG Passphrase each time but that is to
be expected.
Gem Certificates
To create a certificate for your gems, run the following:
cd ~/.ssh
gem cert --build [email protected]
chmod 600 gem-*.pem
The resulting *.pem
key files can be referenced via the :private_key:
and :public_key:
keys
within the ~/.gemsmithrc
file.
To learn more about gem certificates, read about RubyGems Security.
Private Gem Servers
By default, the following Rake task will publish your gem to RubyGems:
bundle exec rake publish
You can change this behavior by adding metadata to your gemspec that will allow the Rake tasks, mentioned above, to publish your gem to an alternate/private gem server instead. This can be done by updating your gem specification and RubyGems credentials.
Gem Specification Metadata
Add the following metadata to your gemspec:
Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
spec.metadata = {
"allowed_push_key" => "example_key",
"allowed_push_host" => "https://gems.example.com"
}
end
The gemspec metadata keys and values must be strings per the RubyGems Specification. Each key represents the following:
allowed_push_key
: Provides a reference (look up) to the key defined the RubyGems credentials file so that sensitive credentials are not used within your gemspec.allowed_push_host
: Provides the URL of the private gem server to push your gem to.
Gem Credentials
With your gem specification metadata established, you are ready to publish your gem to a public or
private server. If this is your first time publishing a gem and no gem credentials have been
configured, you'll be prompted for them. Gem credentials are stored in the RubyGems
~/.gem/credentials
file. From this point forward, future gem publishing will use your stored
credentials instead. Multiple credentials can be stored in the ~/.gem/credentials
file. Example:
---
:rubygems_api_key: 2a0b460650e67d9b85a60e183defa376
:example_key: "Basic dXNlcjpwYXNzd29yZA=="
Should you need to delete a credential (due to a bad login/password for example), you can open the
~/.gem/credentials
in your default editor and remove the line(s) you don't need. Upon next publish
of your gem, you'll be prompted for the missing credentials.
Promotion
Once your gem is released, let the world know about your accomplishment by posting an update to these sites:
Troubleshooting
When running bundle exec rake install
or bundle exec rake publish
with modified, staged, or
uncommitted Git changes, the rake task will throw an error to this effect. When this occurs, it is
recommended that you commit your changes or stash them before
proceeding.
Versioning
Read Semantic Versioning for details. Briefly, it means:
- Major (X.y.z) - Incremented for any backwards incompatible public API changes.
- Minor (x.Y.z) - Incremented for new, backwards compatible, public API enhancements/fixes.
- Patch (x.y.Z) - Incremented for small, backwards compatible, bug fixes.
Code of Conduct
Please note that this project is released with a [CODE OF CONDUCT](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md). By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.
Contributions
Read [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md) for details.
License
Copyright 2011 Alchemists. Read [LICENSE](LICENSE.md) for details.
History
Read [CHANGES](CHANGES.md) for details.
Credits
Developed by Brooke Kuhlmann at Alchemists.
*Note that all licence references and agreements mentioned in the Gemsmith README section above
are relevant to that project's source code only.