# Ruby Is the Language for AI

> At Coolhand Labs we help manage and improve production AI improvement loops across many clients, running on many
> types of codebases. As deep Rubyists, we try to stay objective and neutral about different implementations but,
> lately, we've noticed a trend:

## Token use across our clients

Coolhand tracks cumulative LLM tokens analyzed across client SDKs, broken out by language — JavaScript, Python, and
Ruby, side by side — aggregated weekly and rolled up into a monthly chart covering the last six months at
[coolhandlabs.com/ruby-is-the-language-for-ai](https://coolhandlabs.com/ruby-is-the-language-for-ai). Token counts
include prompt, completion, reasoning, and audio tokens logged through the official `coolhand-ruby`,
`coolhand-python`, `coolhand-node`, and `coolhand-js` SDKs, excluding Coolhand's own internal usage.

## The challenge

So, when Coolhand Labs was selected as one of the year's notable new Ruby startups at the 2026 RubyConf, our
founder used the time on the main stage to make a commitment to the Ruby community:

> "Let's make Ruby the best language for building AI apps, just like it's the best language for building
> everything else."
>
> — [Michael Carroll](https://coolhandlabs.com/about), Founder of Coolhand Labs

View our RubyConf presentation: [coolhandlabs.com/rubyconf-2026](https://coolhandlabs.com/rubyconf-2026)

> The patterns and capabilities of AI product development are far from set in stone.
>
> Good open source tools require creative ideas, experimentation, ownership, and a lot of love... **No language
> community has more of that than Ruby.**

## How we're moving the needle

We aren't going to stand on the sidelines and watch Ruby get, uh... sidelined in AI app development.

Coolhand Labs is making two big[^1] commitments to the Ruby AI ecosystem:

**1. We are making Coolhand 100% free for Ruby apps.** Free until 2027 — and maybe further, if that's what it takes to make
Ruby the top language for AI apps.

We won't count tokens coming from Ruby apps against your usage limits — that's
basically giving your Ruby app no limits on our free tier. (JS and other languages still need to pay, though. 😉)

**2. Funding open source.** We're funding 5 rising open source Ruby + AI projects (50–500 GitHub stars) with a
no-strings-attached $500 donation in 2026, considered on a rolling basis until the funding is spent. Submit your
project at
[coolhandlabs.com/ruby-is-the-language-for-ai#oss-fund](https://coolhandlabs.com/ruby-is-the-language-for-ai#oss-fund).

## New Ruby tools we'd love to see (and help fund!)

- **Idea #1: Batch inference tooling** — ruby_llm just landed a cross-provider batch API on main; help harden it
  with smarter provider routing, retries, and cost tracking.
- **Idea #2: Composable, DRY skills** — no agent-skill framework lets you share instructions across skills
  without copy-paste; build the missing includes/templating layer.
- **Idea #3: Skill linting** — existing linters check frontmatter and naming, but none catch duplicated prompt
  content or real cross-platform compatibility.
- **Idea #4: Incremental skill evals** — today's eval frameworks re-test a whole skill every run; build tooling
  that scopes evals to just the parts a diff actually touched.
- **Idea #5: Rails-native agent harness** — no Rails-native framework exists for building/running AI agents; build
  a harness with agent loops, tool-calling, and memory that fits Rails conventions (ActiveJob, ActionCable, etc).

---

[^1]: big for a bootstrapped startup like us 😅

Source: [coolhandlabs.com/ruby-is-the-language-for-ai](https://coolhandlabs.com/ruby-is-the-language-for-ai)