ChatManager

A Rails engine for managing LLM chat conversations with CSV export, auto-titling, and ready-to-use UI components.

• Chat Management — Controller concern (ChatManageable) for initializing and managing chat arrays with duplicate/nil prevention
• Automatic Title Generation — Model concern (TitleGeneratable) for generating chat titles from initial prompts
• CSV Export — Controller concern (CsvDownloadable) for individual and bulk chat CSV downloads
• UI Components — Chat list and chat card partials with Stimulus-powered inline title editing
• Database Migration Generator — chat_manager:modeling generator for creating the chats table
• Turbo/Turbolinks Safe — CSV download links work correctly with modern Rails JS frameworks

• Ruby 4.0+
• Rails 8.1+

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem "chat_manager"

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install chat_manager

$ rails generate chat_manager:modeling
$ rails db:migrate

This creates the chat_manager_chats table with the following columns:

class ChatsController < ApplicationController
  include ChatManager::ChatManageable
  include ChatManager::CsvDownloadable

  def index
    initialize_chat(current_user.chats)
    set_active_chat_uuid(params[:uuid])
  end
end

class Chat < ApplicationRecord
  include ChatManager::TitleGeneratable

  # You must implement this method
  def summarize_for_title(prompt_text, jwt_token)
    # Call your LLM API to generate a title from the prompt
    # Return a string (max 255 characters)
  end
end

Provides methods for managing chat arrays in your controller:

initialize_chat(chats)        # Initialize with a collection of chats
set_active_chat_uuid(uuid)    # Set the active chat UUID
add_chat(chat)                # Add a chat (prevents nil and duplicates)

Provides CSV export actions:

download_csv      # Download a single chat as CSV
download_all_csv  # Download all user chats as CSV

CSV output includes the following columns: Chat Title, Role, Message Content, Sent At, Model.

Prerequisites: The host application must provide:

• current_user method in the controller (returning an object with a chats association)
• chats association that supports .includes(messages: :prompt_manager_prompt_execution)
• ordered_messages method on the Chat model
• Each message must have a role attribute and a prompt_manager_prompt_execution association with prompt and response attributes

Generates a chat title from the initial user prompt:

chat.generate_title(prompt_text, jwt_token)

Delegates to the summarize_for_title method which must be implemented by the including model.

Use the chat_list helper in your views to render the chat list UI:

<%= chat_list(
  ->(uuid) { chat_path(uuid) },
  active_uuid: @active_uuid,
  download_csv_path: ->(uuid) { download_csv_chat_path(uuid) },
  download_all_csv_path: download_all_csv_chats_path
) %>

Parameters:

The engine provides two partials:

• chat_manager/chat_list — Renders the full chat list with optional bulk CSV download button
• chat_manager/chat_card — Renders an individual chat card with:
  • Title display (truncated to 30 characters)
  • Active state highlighting
  • Inline title editing via Stimulus (chat-title-edit controller)
  • Optional per-chat CSV download button

The engine includes CSS for the chat interface. Available CSS classes:

• .chat-stack — Flex column layout for the chat list
• .chat-card — Card styling with hover effects and active state (.is-active modifier)
• .chat-card-row — Flex row layout for card content and download button
• .chat-card-link — Grid layout for card link area
• .chat-card-prompt — Title text display with line clamping
• .chat-card-number — Chat number label
• .chat-card-download — Per-chat CSV download button
• .chat-card-title-input — Inline edit input field
• .chat-download-all — Container for the bulk download button
• .chat-download-all-link — Bulk download button

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.