Rails Frontend Development Guidelines

Purpose

Comprehensive guide for modern Rails frontend development using Hotwire (Turbo + Stimulus), Tailwind CSS, and server-side rendering. Emphasizes progressive enhancement, minimal JavaScript, and Rails conventions.

When to Use This Skill

• Creating new views or partials
• Building Stimulus controllers
• Working with Turbo Frames or Turbo Streams
• Styling with Tailwind CSS
• Creating ViewComponents
• Adding frontend interactivity
• Organizing frontend code
• Performance optimization

Quick Start

New View Checklist

Creating a view? Follow this checklist:

• Use semantic HTML5 elements
• Turbo Frame for interactive sections
• Turbo Stream for real-time updates
• Tailwind utility classes for styling
• Minimal Stimulus controllers for interactivity
• Partials for reusable components
• Accessible markup (ARIA labels, semantic elements)
• Mobile-first responsive design
• Progressive enhancement (works without JS)

New Stimulus Controller Checklist

Creating a Stimulus controller? Follow this:

• Name matches HTML (data-controller matches filename)
• Use targets for DOM elements
• Use values for configuration
• Use actions for events
• Keep controllers small and focused (single responsibility)
• Clean up in disconnect() if needed
• Use classes for CSS manipulation

Topic Guides

⚡ Turbo (Hotwire)

Turbo Drive:

• Automatic page navigation without full reload
• Enabled by default in Rails 7+
• Use data-turbo="false" to disable on specific links/forms

Turbo Frames:

• Scoped page updates
• Lazy loading support
• Break out with data-turbo-frame="_top"

Turbo Streams:

• Real-time updates over WebSocket or HTTP
• 7 actions: append, prepend, replace, update, remove, before, after
• Format: respond_to with format.turbo_stream

📖 Complete Guide: resources/turbo-guide.md

🎮 Stimulus Controllers

Stimulus = "Modest JavaScript Framework"

• Sprinkles JavaScript on server-rendered HTML
• Three core concepts: Controllers, Actions, Targets
• Lifecycle: connect() → disconnect()
• Values for configuration (automatically typed)
• Classes for CSS manipulation

📖 Complete Guide: resources/stimulus-guide.md

📚 Complete Examples

Full working examples:

• Modern view with Turbo Frames
• Complete Stimulus controller
• Form with real-time validation
• Turbo Stream updates
• Responsive layouts with Tailwind

📖 Complete Guide: resources/complete-examples.md

Navigation Guide

Core Principles

1. Server-Side First: Render HTML on server, enhance with JavaScript
2. Progressive Enhancement: Works without JavaScript, better with it
3. Turbo for Navigation: Use Turbo Drive/Frames instead of full page reloads
4. Stimulus for Interactivity: Minimal JavaScript, attached to HTML
5. Tailwind for Styling: Utility-first CSS in templates
6. Semantic HTML: Use proper HTML5 elements
7. Partials for Reuse: Extract common patterns to partials

File Structure Quick Reference

app/
  views/
    layouts/application.html.erb
    shared/_nav.html.erb
    posts/
      index.html.erb
      show.html.erb
      _post.html.erb
      _form.html.erb
  javascript/
    controllers/
      application.js
      hello_controller.js
      form_controller.js

Related Skills

• rails-backend-guidelines: Backend patterns for controllers and models
• skill-developer: For creating new skills

Skill Status: Adapted for Rails 7+, Hotwire (Turbo + Stimulus), and Tailwind CSS