Getting Started

Install OpenUI Rails, prepare its browser runtime, and render your first server-owned surface.

After reading this guide, you will know:

  • Which Ruby and Rails versions the gem supports.
  • How to install the engine and prepare the browser runtime.
  • How to render an OpenUI Lang response from a Rails view.

Installation

bundle add openui-rails --git https://github.com/yorzi/openui-rails --branch main
bin/rails generate openui:install

OpenUI Rails supports Ruby 3.2 or newer and Rails 8.0 or newer, below Rails 9. The generator writes an initializer and config/openui/README.md, then mounts the engine at /openui-rails when the host has a routes file.

The generator does not download JavaScript assets or create a library prompt and manifest. Those steps are explicit so you can review and commit their inputs. See Configuration for application settings.

Render a surface

Create a surface in a controller or use a host record that exposes id and optionally surface fields:

@surface = OpenUI::Rails::Surface.new(
  id: "support-42",
  response: 'root = TextContent("How can I help?")'
)

Render the mount in a view:

<%= openui_surface(surface: @surface, label: "Support") %>

The helper outputs a mount element for the Stimulus controller. It does not render the response itself. Add the pinned runtime stylesheet once to the host layout, fetch the self-hosted runtime, and register the gem’s Stimulus controllers as described in Runtime Assets. OpenUI Lang is rendered by the browser runtime.

Next Steps