Gem Upgrade Agent
A methodical, fully auditable process for upgrading your Ruby gems and Rails dependencies. No magic. No black box. Just systematic automation of what senior developers already do.
The Problem CTOs Know Too Well
Your Gemfile has 150+ dependencies. Security advisories pile up weekly. Your team keeps postponing upgrades because:
- "It broke last time" — fear of cascading failures
- "Nobody owns it" — feature work always wins
- "We don't have tests for that" — uncertainty about impact
- "It's a 3-week project" — scope creep from dependency chains
The result? You're running gems with known CVEs, missing performance improvements, and accumulating technical debt that compounds every month.
How the Agent Works
Dependency Analysis
Maps your dependency tree and checks for security issues.
-
→
Parses
Gemfile.lockand checks RubyGems for latest versions - → Cross-references with RubySec for known CVEs
- → Produces a prioritized upgrade report
Breaking Change Detection
Reads changelogs and maps breaking changes to your code.
-
→
Fetches
CHANGELOG.mdand GitHub releases - → Identifies deprecations affecting your codebase
- → Flags high-risk upgrades for manual review
Isolated Upgrade Execution
Each gem is upgraded in isolation to pinpoint failures.
-
→
Creates a branch and runs
bundle update --conservative - → Applies migration patterns and updates deprecated calls
- → Commits with clear messages linking to changelogs
Test Suite Validation
Every upgrade is verified against your existing tests.
- → Runs full test suite and identifies failures
- → Applies automatic fixes for common patterns
- → Re-runs until green or flags for human review
Pull Request with Full Context
You receive a clean PR that your team can review confidently.
- → Includes changelog summary, CVEs fixed, and rollback instructions
- → Links to upstream documentation
- → You merge. You own the code.
Safety Guarantees
No Direct Commits
Every change goes through a Pull Request. Your team reviews and merges.
Sandboxed Execution
Agents run in isolated CI environments or on my local machine. Never on your production servers.
Conservative Updates
Uses --conservative flag to minimize unintended dependency changes.
Full Audit Trail
Every decision is logged. You see exactly what the agent did and why.
Human Escalation
Complex breaking changes are flagged for manual review. The agent knows its limits.
Instant Rollback
Every PR includes rollback instructions. One git revert undoes everything.
What This Is NOT
- ✗ Not a black box. You see every step, every decision, every line of code changed.
- ✗ Not auto-merge. Nothing lands in your codebase without human approval.
- ✗ Not Dependabot. This is contextual. It understands your code, not just version numbers.
- ✗ Not a replacement for your team. It's a force multiplier. Your devs review and learn from the PRs.
Typical Results
Ready to Clear Your Gem Backlog?
Start with a $1,500 audit. Get a full dependency report and prioritized upgrade roadmap.