Longreads from the Rocketship

APIs sit at the center of modern digital products. Every mobile interaction, dashboard update, and system integration depends on a reliable backend layer that moves data between systems with precision and consistency. As products grow more connected and more distributed, the quality of the API often determines how quickly a business can adapt.

This shift toward API driven architectures has changed how teams build software. Backend systems are no longer tied to a single interface. They are expected to support web applications, mobile clients, internal tools, and external partners, often all at once. 

Ruby on Rails supports this model directly through its API focused capabilities within the broader rails framework.

Two years ago, I wrote the JetRockets Manifesto to explain how we think about partnerships, delivery, and responsibility. At the time, it felt important to put words around something that had already been true for us for years: that successful software is not the result of transactions, tools, or speed alone, but of trust, judgment, and shared ownership.

Since then, the world has changed. Or at least, the tools have.

AI is now woven into nearly every part of software development. Code can be generated in minutes. Documentation can be drafted instantly. Project artifacts that once took days can now be created immediately. Pretending this isn’t happening, or choosing to opt out, would be irresponsible.

We don’t.

 Learn how to build resilient, multi-step AI workflows in Rails using ActiveJob::Continuable. This guide shows you how to create fault-tolerant jobs that automatically resume after interruptions, saving time and expensive AI processing calls.

At JetRockets, Ruby on Rails isn’t just a technology choice, but the foundation of how we build, scale, and support long-term products for our clients. Sponsoring Tropical on Rails is a natural extension of that commitment.

At JetRockets, we’ve spent over a decade building and scaling software products on Ruby on Rails. So when WIRED argues that Ruby is “not serious,” we felt it was worth responding with what we see every day in the field.

The article raises two common criticisms — dynamic typing and raw runtime performance. Both are technically true. Neither is practically relevant for the vast majority of real-world applications.