Gem Index

The complete ask-rb ecosystem: 40+ Ruby gems, plus one npm package for UI components. All gems are independently versioned and released on RubyGems. Each gem’s README is the front door; the guides below go deep.

Which gems do you need?

Start from what you’re building, not from the gem list. Every gem declares its own dependencies, so the tree below is all you add to your Gemfile.

You want to…	Add to your Gemfile
Run an agent in any Ruby app (chatbot, coding assistant, research)	`ask-agent` (pulls in providers, tools, skills, state)
Add shell/file tools to that agent	`ask-agent` + `ask-tools-shell`
Give your Rails users AI features (agents, actions, workflows)	`ask-rails` (+ `ask-graph` for workflows)
Give an admin agent safe access to any Ruby project	`ask-ruby-harness`
Give an admin agent safe access to your Rails app	`ask-rails-harness` (builds on `ask-ruby-harness`)
Let Claude Code / Cursor introspect any Ruby project	`ask-ruby-harness-mcp`
Let Claude Code / Cursor introspect your Rails app	`ask-rails-harness-mcp`
Build a deterministic multi-step pipeline	`ask-graph`
Ground answers in your own documents	`ask-rag`
Talk to a specific LLM API without an agent	`ask-llm-providers`
Let an agent use your desktop apps	`ask-computer`
Call GitHub, Slack, Notion, Linear, Sentry, Honeybadger from an agent	the matching `ask-*` service gem
Fetch a URL as clean markdown	`ask-web-fetch`
Bill for token usage	`ask-tokens` (+ `ask-tokens-rails` for ActiveRecord)
Give every app a stable `https://<app>.localhost` URL	`yamine`
Expose the agent over the session protocol	`ask-app-server` + `ask-session-protocol`
Drive the agent from a terminal	`ask-terminal`
Monitor cost and latency in production	`ask-monitoring` (+ `ask-observability` for Prometheus/OTel)
Trace requests with OpenTelemetry	`ask-opentelemetry`
Test LLM outputs in Minitest	`ask-eval`
Expose your Ruby tools to any MCP client	`ask-mcp`
Build a chat UI	`ask-ui-kit` (npm)

Don’t add gems you don’t need. ask-agent alone gets you a working agent; everything else layers on.

Coding Agent

Gem	Purpose
ask-app-server	JSON-RPC/stdio app server exposing an ask-rb agent over the standard app-server protocol. Guide
ask-session-protocol	The canonical wire protocol for ask sessions: canonical events, resolvable interactions, versioned JSON Schema. Guide
ask-terminal	Terminal thin client for the session protocol: spawns or attaches to the host over stdio or a unix socket. Guide
ask-coding-providers	Registry of coding-agent adapters: `:acp`, `:ask_agent`, `:claude`, `:codex`.

ask-coding-harness is deprecated (maintenance mode). Build on ask-app-server + ask-session-protocol instead — guide.

Foundation

Gem	Purpose
ask-core	Zero-dependency foundation: conversations, messages, streaming, provider interface, model catalog, result types, errors. Guide
ask-schema	Ruby DSL for JSON Schema, used by tool params and structured output. Guide
ask-auth	Credential resolution chain: env, files, Rails credentials, database, OAuth. Guide
ask-sandbox-providers	Four sandbox backends for code execution: Local, Docker, Daytona, Cloudflare. Guide
ask-state-providers	State backends for sessions and checkpoints: Memory, SQLite, Redis, PostgreSQL, MySQL. Reference

LLM Providers

Gem	Purpose
ask-llm-providers	All providers in one gem: canonical + OpenAI-compatible, with a bundled model catalog. Guide

Tools

Gem	Purpose
ask-tools	The tool framework: `Ask::Tool`, `Ask::Result`, registry. No executable tools inside. Guide
ask-tools-shell	Nine shell and file tools: Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, Code, Repl (persistent Ruby sessions), ApplyPatch. Guide
ask-web-search	`Ask::Tools::WebSearch`, a SearXNG-backed search tool. Guide
ask-web-fetch	`Ask::WebFetch.fetch` — URL → clean markdown with pluggable backends (Local, Crawl4AI, Jina, Browser). Guide
ask-computer	Drive desktop apps via Cua Driver: screenshots, clicks, typing, sandboxed VMs, encrypted Computer History. Guide

Agent

Gem	Purpose
ask-agent	The agent loop: sessions, tool execution, compaction, hooks, events, evaluator, scheduler, sub-agents, `askr` CLI. Guide

Workflows

Gem	Purpose
ask-graph	Deterministic, checkpointed multi-step workflows with conditions, parallelism, approval, timeouts, retries. Guide

Harness

Gem	Purpose
ask-ruby-harness	Admin AI copilot for any Ruby project: 6 tools (DB, models, logs, commands, tests) with audit log and permissions. No Rails dependency. Guide
ask-ruby-harness-mcp	Exposes the harness tools to coding agents over MCP — serves any Ruby project, monorepo-aware. Guide

Rails

Gem	Purpose
ask-rails	Generators, file conventions, and a railtie for user-facing AI features in Rails. Guide
ask-rails-harness	Admin AI copilot mounted at `/ask`: the 6 generic tools plus `RouteInspector`, audit log, permissions, chat UI. Builds on `ask-ruby-harness`. Guide
ask-rails-harness-mcp	Exposes the harness tools to coding agents over MCP. Guide

MCP

Gem	Purpose
ask-mcp	MCP client and server for Ruby: stdio, SSE, Streamable HTTP, OAuth 2.1. Guide
ask-web-search-mcp	MCP server exposing `ask_web_search` over stdio for any MCP client. Guide
ask-web-fetch-mcp	MCP server exposing `ask_web_fetch` over stdio for any MCP client. Guide
ask-computer-mcp	MCP server for `ask-computer` tools over stdio — use computer-use from any MCP client. Guide

Session Protocol & Clients

Gem	Purpose
ask-session-protocol	Canonical wire protocol for ask sessions: events, interactions, methods, versioning, JSON Schema. Guide
ask-terminal	Terminal client for the session protocol (command `ask`). Spawns or attaches to the host. Guide

Instrumentation & Observability

Gem	Purpose
ask-instrumentation	`ActiveSupport::Notifications` events for every LLM operation. Guide
ask-opentelemetry	OpenTelemetry spans from instrumentation events. Guide
ask-observability	Prometheus metrics + OTel/logging bootstrap + `/metrics` endpoint. Guide
ask-monitoring	Rails engine dashboard for cost, throughput, error rate, response time, with alerts. Guide

Service Contexts

Service gems provide an authenticated client plus system-prompt metadata and error guidance for AI agents.

Gem	Purpose
ask-github	Authenticated Octokit client for issues, PRs, repos, search. Guide
ask-slack	Slack Web API client for messaging and workspace management. Guide
ask-notion	Notion API client for pages, databases, blocks, search. Guide
ask-linear	GraphQL client for Linear issue tracking. Guide
ask-sentry	Sentry error tracking API client. Guide
ask-honeybadger	Honeybadger fault tracking API client. Guide
ask-solid_errors	Database-backed error tracking via the solid_errors gem, no API key. Guide

Channels

Gem	Purpose
ask-channel-providers	Messaging channel adapters with one interface. Ships Telegram today.

Skills

Gem	Purpose
ask-skills	Skill discovery and loading: markdown methodology files from project, user config, gems, built-in. Guide

RAG

Gem	Purpose
ask-rag	RAG pipeline: loaders, splitters, vector stores (InMemory, PGVector), retrieval, one-shot query. Guide

Tokens

Gem	Purpose
ask-tokens	Token accounting: count real tokens (tiktoken), price them, and run a wallet/ledger engine with a pluggable store. Guide
ask-tokens-rails	ActiveRecord store, `has_token_wallet`, install generator, and expiry sweep job for `ask-tokens`. Guide

Local Development

Gem	Purpose
yamine	Stable named `https://<app>.localhost` URLs for Ruby development. Zero runtime dependencies. Guide
ask-local-rails (deprecated)	Rails integration for `ask-local` — superseded by `RAILS_DEVELOPMENT_HOSTS` injection in core. Moved to deprecated/.

Evaluation

Gem	Purpose
ask-eval	Minitest-native LLM evaluation: deterministic assertions, LLM-as-judge, session eval, recording/replay. Guide

UI Kit (npm)

Package	Purpose
ask-ui-kit	16 framework-agnostic Web Components for AI chat UIs, built with Lit. Guide

Dependency Graph

ask-core               ──► (no deps)
ask-schema             ──► (no deps)
ask-auth               ──► (no ask deps)
ask-sandbox-providers  ──► (no deps)
ask-state-providers    ──► ask-core
ask-skills             ──► (no deps)
ask-eval               ──► (no deps)
│
├── ask-llm-providers   ──► ask-core, ask-auth
├── ask-tools           ──► ask-schema
├── ask-graph           ──► ask-core, ask-state-providers
├── ask-instrumentation ──► (no ask deps)
│     ├── ask-opentelemetry ──► ask-instrumentation
│     ├── ask-observability ──► ask-instrumentation  (also Prometheus, OTel bootstrap, /metrics)
│     └── ask-monitoring    ──► ask-instrumentation
│
├── ask-github       ──► ask-auth
├── ask-slack        ──► ask-auth
├── ask-notion       ──► ask-auth
├── ask-linear       ──► ask-auth
├── ask-honeybadger  ──► ask-core, ask-auth
├── ask-sentry       ──► ask-core, ask-auth
├── ask-solid_errors ──► ask-core
│
├── ask-tools-shell  ──► ask-tools, ask-sandbox-providers
│     └── ask-agent  ──► ask-core, ask-llm-providers, ask-tools, ask-skills,
│                        ask-state-providers, ask-instrumentation
│           ├── ask-rails            ──► ask-agent
│           ├── ask-rails-harness    ──► ask-agent, ask-tools, ask-tools-shell, ask-auth
│           ├── ask-rails-harness-mcp ──► ask-rails-harness, ask-mcp
│           ├── ask-app-server       ──► ask-agent, ask-state-providers
│           │     └── ask-terminal        ──► ask-session-protocol  (client; also uses ask-app-server as host)
│           ├── ask-session-protocol ──► (no deps)  (used by ask-app-server + ask-terminal)
│           └── ask-coding-harness   ──► ask-agent, ask-coding-providers,  (deprecated)
│                                        ask-tools-shell, ask-state-providers
│
├── ask-web-search   ──► ask-tools
│     └── ask-web-search-mcp ──► ask-mcp, ask-web-search
├── ask-web-fetch    ──► ask-tools
│     └── ask-web-fetch-mcp  ──► ask-mcp, ask-web-fetch
├── ask-computer     ──► ask-core, ask-mcp, ask-tools
│     └── ask-computer-mcp ──► ask-computer, ask-mcp
├── ask-tokens       ──► (no deps)
│     └── ask-tokens-rails  ──► ask-tokens, activerecord
├── yamine           ──► (no deps)
│     └── ask-local-rails ──► yamine
├── ask-rag          ──► ask-core
│
└── ask-mcp          ──► (no ask deps)
      ├── ask-acp            ──► (no ask deps)
      └── ask-channel-providers ──► ask-auth

Installation

# Single gem
gem "ask-agent"

# The web coding agent — gem install ask-coding-harness, then `ach serve`
gem "ask-coding-harness"

# For Rails apps — user-facing AI features
gem "ask-rails"

# For Rails apps — admin copilot (pulls in agent, tools, shell, auth)
gem "ask-rails-harness"

All gems follow semantic versioning. Breaking changes increment the major version.