[Tropical on Rails] From 1 to 2

Your MVP shipped. Now what? Getting from a working Rails app to one that survives its own success takes more than shipping features. It takes a proper architecture to build upon, AI-readiness and processes that compound instead of decay.

This talk is a field guide for the jump from MVP to a Rails app ready for rapid growth — in the AI era.

Transcript

1. Vladimir Dementyev Evil Martians
2. SPACE CONQUEST 7 0 -> 1 -> 2 1897 Rocket equation 1957 Sputnik launch 1961 1st man in space
3. IS YOUR PROJECT READY TO PUT HUMANS IN? 8
4. 9 github.com/palkan 2017-... 2016-... 2015-... 2015-...
5. 10 evilmartians.com 2017-... 2016-... 2015-... 2015-... Vamos nessa!
6. ONE PERSON FRAMEWORK 11 INTEGRATION BEATS COLLECTION
8. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT 13
9. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT 14
10. SOFTWARE- PRODUCT FIT 15
11. SOFTWARE-PRODUCT FIT 16
12. SPF Axiom YOUR PRODUCT CAN'T OUTGROW YOUR CODEBASE 17
13. Support for complex domain architectures and bigger teams GROWING PAINS 18 Clear prescription on where to put business logic; solutions for services, forms, policies... Observability default: JSON logs, tracing, metrics... What Rails developers at 1-2 want First-class native async support
14. GROWING PAINS 19 What Rails developers at 1-2 need Maintainability Scalability
15. MAINTAINABILITY BY EXAMPLE 20
16. Rails Inertia Svyat IT STARTS WITH ONE 21 thicket.com, a few days into the soft launch
17. Rails Inertia Svyat IT STARTS WITH ONE 21 thicket.com, a few days into the soft launch
19. TECH DEBT COMPOUNDS 23
20. TECH DEBT COMPOUNDS 23
21. TECH DEBT COMPOUNDS 24
22. FIGHTING TECH DEBT 25 A not illustrated guide
24. 27 class Dashboard::CoursesController < InertiaController def index courses_scope = Current.user.enrolled_courses filtered_scope = CoursesFilter.filter(courses_scope, params) @pagy, @courses = pagy(filtered_scope) end end app/controllers/dashboard/courses_controller.rb EXAMPLE INTERFACE
25. 28 class Dashboard::CoursesController < InertiaController def index @courses, @current_filter = filtery( Current.user.courses.not_removed ) @pagy, @courses = pagy(@courses) end end app/controllers/dashboard/courses_controller.rb ACTUAL INTERFACE
26. gem "rubanok" #sortable_by filter_spec.rb Types-ready class Dashboard::CoursesFilter < ApplicationFilter process :filters do map :states do |states:| raw.where(state: states) end end sortable_by :title, :completed_lessons_count, default: "title" do having "enrolled_at" do |sort_direction: "asc"| raw.order(enrollments: {purchased_at: sort_direction}) .order(id: :asc) end having "is_course_completed" do |sort_direction: "asc"| col = Course.arel_table[:finished_at] ordering = sort_direction == "desc" ? col.desc.nulls_last : col.asc.nulls_first raw.order(ordering).order(id: :asc) end end end app/controllers/dashboard/courses_filter.rb FILTER OBJECT 29 The Thicket Way
27. gem "rubanok" #sortable_by filter_spec.rb Types-ready describe Dashboard::CoursesFilter do context "sorting" do it "applies default sorting (title asc)" it "sorts by completed_lessons_count" it "sorts by enrolled_at via purchased_at" it "sorts by is_course_completed with NULLs" it "falls back to default for unknown fields" end context "filtering" do it "filters by state" it "ignores empty state arrays" end end spec/controllers/dashboard/courses_filter_spec.rb FILTER OBJECT 30 The Thicket Way
28. gem "rubanok" #sortable_by filter_spec.rb Types-ready describe Dashboard::CoursesFilter do context "sorting" do it "applies default sorting (title asc)" it "sorts by completed_lessons_count" it "sorts by enrolled_at via purchased_at" it "sorts by is_course_completed with NULLs" it "falls back to default for unknown fields" end context "filtering" do it "filters by state" it "ignores empty state arrays" end end spec/controllers/dashboard/courses_filter_spec.rb FILTER OBJECT 31 The Thicket Way describe "/dashboard/courses" do it "sorts by completed_lessons_count via CoursesFilter" d expect do get dashboard_courses_path( sort_field: "completed_lessons_count", sort_direction: "asc" ) end.to have_filtered(student.enrolled_courses) .with(Dashboard::CoursesFilter) expect(response).to have_http_status(:ok) expect(inertia.props).to include("sort_field" => "completed_lessons_count", "sort_direction" => "asc") end end spec/requests/dashboard/courses_spec.rb
29. TYPED FILTER 32
30. MISSION COMPLETE Extracted an abstraction layer Introduced a convention Improved stability and DX 33 One small step toward maintainability
31. MORE SMALL STEPS 34 You've learned at Tropical on Rails 2026 Migrate from STI before it's too late Reordering using int columns can only get you so far Write stronger migrations to stop being scared
32. ARCHITECTURE DETERMINES HOW FAST YOU CAN GO 35
33. 36 CARA, 20 MINUTES AND NO AI. NÃO AGUENTO MAIS!
35. AI IS AN AMPLIFIER 38 A IA ecoa a qualidade do seu código Garbage in, garbage out
36. Context compression ARCHITECTURE × AI 39 But does it even matter with 1M context windows?
39. Context compression Implicit harness ARCHITECTURE × AI 42 Extra layers, non-vanilla Rails. Do agents benefit?
40. EXPERIMENTS 43
41. EXPERIMENTS 43 DeepSeek sucks!
42. Re-implement filtering Same prompt/process Unlayered vs. Layered EXPERIMENT 44 thicket.com × AI rails-app — zsh ▐▛███▜▌ Código Claude v10.04.2026 ▝▜█████▛▘ Vovas 3.7 (1M context) · Claude M ▘▘ ▝▝ > Add filtering and sorting to the student' Requirements: 1. Add a category filter. Param: filters[ca When present, only courses in that categ When absent or blank, all enrolled cours 2. Add sorting. The existing default sort i sort fields: - "completed_lessons_count" — sorts by t count (the completed_lessons_count col
43. EXPERIMENT 45 UNLAYERED LAYERED Bugs 0 0 Mistakes 3 0 Contoller LOC 33 2 Net LOC 215 128
44. TECH DEBT, GENERATED 46
45. TECH DEBT, GENERATED 47
46. 48 DIMENSION UNLAYERED LAYERED Discoverability 3–4 hops 2 hops Isolation Shared controller namespace, instance vars Standalone object, returns data Predictability Inconsistent inline patterns, invented a new variant Uniform DSL, matches all existing filters Blast radius 2 files / 33 controller LOC 4 files / 2 controller LOC
47. The layer didn't make the agent smarter It made the agent's mistakes smaller and its correct code cheaper 49
48. IMPLICIT HARNESS IS NOT ENOUGH 50
49. ARCHITECTURE × AI 51 Pattern-oriented architecture Architectural patterns Design patterns Idioms
50. AI orchestration patterns Architectural patterns Design patterns Idioms ARCHITECTURE × AI 52 Pattern-oriented architecture 2026
51. !!! "!! ""! """ AI orchestration patterns Architectural patterns Design patterns Idioms ARCHITECTURE × AI 53 Pattern-oriented architecture 2026
52. GUIDE THE AMPLIFIER Processes # compound-engineering Skills # palkan/skills, superpowers-ruby Context enrichment # Tidewave, ruby-lsp Trusted references 54 Quality code and context in, quality code out
54. SPF CHECKLIST Architecture that doesn't slow you down AI-rchitecture that keeps quality high 56 What makes up point 2?
55. Platform that scales and stay resilient Processes that let the team deliver SPF CHECKLIST 57 What makes up point 2? Consistent dev environment!
56. SPF CHECKLIST Architecture AI-rchitecture Platform Processes 58 What makes up point 2?
57. SPACE CONQUEST 59 1897 Rocket equation 1957 Sputnik launch 1961 1st man in space
58. SPACE CONQUEST 60 1897 Rocket equation 1957 Sputnik launch 1961 1st man in space 1969 Moon landing 1971 1st space station 2026 Just checking in 2126 Welcome!
59. SPF Axiom YOUR PRODUCT CAN'T OUTGROW YOUR CODEBASE 61
60. SPF Axiom YOUR PRODUCT CAN'T OUTGROW YOUR CODEBASE CUIDADO COM O VÃO! 61
61. PREVENT THE GAP Analyze # /layered-rails:analyze Reflect # fixed bugs and stale PRs Monitor # know your hot and weak paths Follow Evil Martians 62 Measuring the software-product fit
62. OBRIGADO! x.com/palkan_tula x.com/evil_martians