--- title: The Rails Way in 2026 | daily.dev description: An observation from Arkency's consulting work identifies a recurring architectural pattern in Rails codebases in 2026: fat models with callbacks that trigger... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-rails-way-in-2026-lwaqok4v6 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Rails Way in 2026 | daily.dev og:description: An observation from Arkency's consulting work identifies a recurring architectural pattern in Rails codebases in 2026: fat models with callbacks that trigger... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-rails-way-in-2026-lwaqok4v6 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/lwaqOk4v6.png og:image:alt: The Rails Way in 2026 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Rails Way in 2026 **[arkency](https://daily.dev/sources/arkency)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An observation from Arkency's consulting work identifies a recurring architectural pattern in Rails codebases in 2026: fat models with callbacks that trigger service objects, which in turn schedule background jobs. Active Record rows increasingly carry mixed responsibilities — entity state, workflow/process state, and auxiliary process-tracking columns — rather than representing pure domain entities. Concerns are also noted as part of the official Rails style. The post aims to name and describe this pattern rather than argue for or against it, as a prerequisite for honest discussion about when it works and when it doesn't. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What Rails Actually Wants: Tidying Controllers and Views Without Service Object Explosion](https://daily.dev/posts/what-rails-actually-wants-tidying-controllers-and-views-without-service-object-explosion-z7ssr3alm) · Ruby Flow · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Top 10 Software Design Patterns in Rails](https://daily.dev/posts/top-10-software-design-patterns-in-rails-bnryscr6i) · RUBYLAND · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Teach your models to act, not just be](https://daily.dev/posts/teach-your-models-to-act-not-just-be-z79b4tlbe) · thoughbot · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Rails apps have layers but no modules](https://daily.dev/posts/rails-apps-have-layers-but-no-modules-4zpv7brs8) · RUBYLAND · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Ruby on Rails - A Developer’s Perspective](https://daily.dev/posts/ruby-on-rails---a-developer-s-perspective-cu9oszkms) · Scott Logic · 5 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#rails](https://daily.dev/tags/rails), [#domain-driven-design](https://daily.dev/tags/domain-driven-design) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-rails-way-in-2026-lwaqok4v6) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Rails Way in 2026","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-rails-way-in-2026-lwaqok4v6","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-rails-way-in-2026-lwaqok4v6"},"datePublished":"2026-04-24T17:27:46.452Z","dateModified":"2026-04-24T17:28:11.454Z","description":"An observation from Arkency's consulting work identifies a recurring architectural pattern in Rails codebases in 2026: fat models with callbacks that trigger...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/afa6040cff476db42bafd86e6a5a0345?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/afa6040cff476db42bafd86e6a5a0345?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"arkency","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"arkency","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/8f136fafb2a547659a8923f7f2a1d5ee","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/arkency"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-rails-way-in-2026-lwaqok4v6","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"architecture,rails,domain-driven-design","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"arkency","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/arkency"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Rails Way in 2026"}]} ```