Akshay Khot - Write Software, Well

Sitemaps: A Quick SEO Win for New Websites

A sitemap lists your site's pages, helping Google crawl it efficiently. It's especially useful for large sites or new sites with zero backlinks. This post shows how you can create one in your Rails site, how to add it to Google Search Console, and how to index new pages as soon as you publish them.

7 min read

Polymorphic URLs with direct Router Helper

The Rails router's direct method lets you create custom url and path helpers, which is especially useful for polymorphic models and delegated types. This post shows how to use a single custom helper to generate URLs for different models, with a practical example from the open source Maybe project.

4 min read

Working Effectively with AI as a Developer

I started as a sceptic, but now I'm a convert and a heavy user of AI for everyday programming, and wanted to write down some common patterns and prompts for working with AI tools that I’ve found useful in my own development workflow as well as those I learned from other experienced developers.

4 min read

How to Inspect the Sequence of Controller Callbacks in Rails

This post shows how to inspect the sequence of before, after, and around callbacks in Rails controllers by adding a small initializer. Useful for understanding callback order in applications with complex controller hierarchies or shared concerns. I learned this trick while reading the Rails tests.

3 min read

Thoughts on Freelancing for Web Developers

After three years of freelancing and over a year of running my own software studio, here're some scattered thoughts on freelancing as a software developer, especially around web development.

3 min read

Extracting Options from Arguments in Rails

You can safely extract options hash from the end of an argument list using the extract_options! method in Rails. Not only it simplifies the method definition but it keeps the method's API flexible, allowing you to add new options without breaking existing callers.

Rails Internals 5 min read

Redirects in Rails: Manual, Helper, and Internals

In this post, we’ll explore how redirects work in Rails: what they are, how to redirect manually, and how the redirect_to method simplifies things. We’ll cover common use cases, security considerations, and even dig into the Rails source to see how redirect_to works under the hood.

Controllers 8 min read

Understanding the Render Method in Rails

In this post, we'll learn how Rails' render method works and how to use it effectively. From rendering templates, partials, and inline content to JSON and custom status codes, this post explores the different ways to render views from your controllers.

Controllers 7 min read

Vibe Learning is Underrated

Last week, I used AI to finally learn the basics of QuickBooks and handle my company’s bookkeeping. AI didn’t just help me finish a chore, it taught me a skill I’d been avoiding for years. When used with intent, the modern AI tools can accelerate your learning in surprising ways.

Business Logic 4 min read

Decoding the Business Layer of Software

Announcing a new newsletter where I write about topics beyond Ruby on Rails: running a software services business, freelancing, positioning and marketing for developers, working with AI, hiring and tech recruiting, etc. Business Logic is about everything that happens around writing software, well.

Business Logic 2 min read

Serving Large Files in Rails with a Reverse Proxy Server

If your Rails app deals with large files, let a reverse proxy like Nginx or Thruster serve them. In this post, we'll learn how X-Accel-Redirect (or X-Sendfile) header hands off file delivery to Nginx. We'll also read Thruster’s source code to learn how this pattern is implemented at the proxy level.

13 min read

Fix N+1 Queries Without Eager Loading Using SQL Subqueries

In this post, we'll learn how to use a SQL subquery in a Rails app to eliminate N+1 queries and improve performance. We'll profile a real-world example, showing how to fetch a single record from associated has_many records efficiently without eager loading or excessive memory usage.

14 min read