January 2026 Meeting
The January 2026 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 12th of January, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we’re hosted by our friends at Opus Recruitment Solutions in their offices, on Old Jewry. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda
Rails Was Off the Rails - But It’s Back!
Stephen Creedon says:
Rails lost its way during versions 4, 5, and 6 - becoming overly complex and slow as it leaned heavily into JavaScript. But the story doesn’t end there. With Rails 8.1 introducing features like Stimulus, Action Cable, and Solid Cable, the framework is returning to its roots: simplicity, speed, and developer joy.
Join us for a deep dive into why Rails has its mojo back and what this means for the future of Ruby developmen
RSpec Craftsmanship and Refactoring with Junie
Sebastian Siemianowski says:
In this talk, Sebastian will dive into RSpec as a craft — showing how thoughtful test design can make refactoring less terrifying. You’ll see real-world examples of transforming low-signal specs into readable, behaviour-driven tests, and learn how Junie, an IDE-native AI assistant, can act as a second pair of eyes to improve naming, structure, and guarantees.
This is a practical, opinionated look at using AI to support test quality—while keeping human judgment firmly in control.
Why join?
- Many test suites pass—and still make refactoring terrifying. Why?
- Explore clarity, intent, and refactor safety in RSpec.
- See how AI can enhance craftsmanship without replacing developers.
Afterwards
Once all that is over, we will have plenty to talk about so we’ll head on out to a nearby pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place
Our hosts have limited space so you to be guaranteed entry you need to register for a free ticket via TicketTailor.
Venue
The address of the venue:
Opus Recruitment Solutions
5th Floor
Becket House
36 Old Jewry
London
EC2R 8DD
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 80 people. If you register and realise you can’t come, please use let us know via TickeTailor so we can give your place to someone in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Posted by Murray Steele on Dec 22, 2025