Herdr-Rails Plugin

Simplifies worktree based agentic Rails development with Herdr.

Features:

• Runs rails db:prepare for new worktrees
• Runs rails css:install for new worktrees if cssbundling-rails is present
• Runs rails javascript:install for new worktrees if jsbundling-rails is present

Installation

To install run:

herdr plugin install codergeek121/herdr-rails

Separate databases per worktree

By default all worktrees share the same database. If you want each worktree to use its own database (so parallel agents don't step on each other's data), you don't need any changes to this plugin — Herdr already exposes a per-worktree identity via the HERDR_WORKSPACE_ID environment variable, which is available throughout the worktree.

Opt in from your app by referencing that variable in config/database.yml:

development:
  <<: *default
  database: myapp_development<%= "_#{ENV['HERDR_WORKSPACE_ID']}" if ENV['HERDR_WORKSPACE_ID'] %>

test:
  <<: *default
  database: myapp_test<%= "_#{ENV['HERDR_WORKSPACE_ID']}" if ENV['HERDR_WORKSPACE_ID'] %>

• Outside of Herdr (local machine, CI) the variable is unset, so your regular database names are used and nothing changes.
• Inside a worktree the name becomes e.g. myapp_development_<id>, giving each worktree its own database.
• The existing rails db:prepare step creates the namespaced database automatically — it just reads database.yml, so no extra setup is required.

Manual dev layout action

Herdr doesn't auto-bind plugin actions, so add this to ~/.config/herdr/config.toml and run herdr server reload-config:

[[keys.command]]
key = "prefix+alt+d" # example keybind
type = "plugin_action"
command = "codergeek121.herdr-rails.dev-layout"
description = "Dev-Layout: Editor + Rails + Terminal"

TODOs

• TODO: Handle multiple test DBs without app configuration change
• TODO: Failure should mark the pane as "blocked"
• TODO: Copy Bootsnap Cache for worktrees