Spiker

Spiker scaffolds small, testable Ruby experiments — spikes. It generates a working red-green setup (Minitest or RSpec, plus Guard) in seconds, so you can validate an idea or explore an API without writing boilerplate first.

Think of it as rails new for code spikes.

gem install spiker

Navigate to wherever you keep your experiments and create a spike:

spiker simple my_idea
cd my_idea

Then start Guard and work in a red-green loop:

bundle exec guard

All code and tests in one file. Good for one-off ideas or sharing snippets.

spiker simple my_idea

Generates:

my_idea/
├── app.rb
├── Gemfile
├── Guardfile
├── .env
├── Dockerfile*
├── docker-compose.yml*
├── Makefile*

* Skippable — see Options.

The app.rb file includes a starter class, a few tests, and support for .env values:

require 'minitest'
require 'minitest/autorun'
require 'minitest/reporters'

Minitest::Reporters.use!

class MyIdeaTest < Minitest::Test
  def test_name
    assert_equal "Fred", MyIdea.new(name: "Fred").name
  end

  def test_default_env_value
    assert_equal "test", ENV["TEST_VALUE"]
  end
end

class MyIdea
  attr_accessor :name

  def initialize(name:)
    @name = name
  end
end

Like simple, but uses Minitest::Spec with Given/When/Then style tests. Inspired by the late, great Jim Weirich.

spiker given my_given_spike

A multi-file layout for spikes that need more structure. Minitest is the test framework, Rake is wired up, and Guard watches your files.

spiker multi cool_tool
cd cool_tool

Generates:

cool_tool/
├── lib/cool_tool.rb
├── test/
│   ├── test_helper.rb
│   └── cool_tool_test.rb
├── Guardfile
├── Gemfile
├── Rakefile
├── README.md

Like multi, but with RSpec.

spiker rspec spike_it
cd spike_it

Generates:

spike_it/
├── lib/spike_it.rb
├── spec/
│   ├── spec_helper.rb
│   └── spike_it_spec.rb
├── Guardfile
├── Gemfile
├── Rakefile

Run tests with bundle exec guard, rake, or rspec.

Each generator supports flags to skip pieces you don't need:

spiker simple my_spike --skip-docker --skip-bundle --skip-git

Run spiker help or spiker help [COMMAND] to see all options.

• Fast — from idea to testable code in seconds, no boilerplate by hand
• Familiar — Minitest, RSpec, Guard, Rake: tools you already know
• Simple — no configuration or meta-generators
• Docker-ready — edit locally, run in a container if you like
• Flexible — pick the spike format that fits the task

Spiker is a generator-style Ruby gem built on Thor. To add a new spike type, work in:

lib/spiker.rb
lib/spiker/cli.rb
lib/spiker/generators/<YOUR_GENERATOR_HERE>
lib/spiker/templates/<YOUR_GENERATOR_TEMPLATES_HERE>

Adapting an existing spike type only requires changes to the last two.

To get started, check out the repo and run bundle exec bin/setup to install dependencies. Run rake test to run the tests, or bundle exec bin/console for an interactive prompt. To install your local version of the gem, run bundle exec rake install. For everything else, see bundle exec rake -T.

Spiker is open source, released under the MIT License.

https://github.com/norlinga/spiker