All Skills > SDK Setup > Ruby SDK

Sentry Ruby SDK

Opinionated wizard that scans the project and guides through complete Sentry setup.

Invoke This Skill When

• User asks to "add Sentry to Ruby" or "set up Sentry" in a Ruby app
• User wants error monitoring, tracing, logging, metrics, profiling, or crons in Ruby
• User mentions sentry-ruby, sentry-rails, or the Ruby Sentry SDK
• User is migrating from AppSignal, Honeybadger, Bugsnag, Rollbar, or Airbrake to Sentry
• User wants to monitor exceptions, HTTP requests, or background jobs in Rails/Sinatra

Note: SDK APIs below reflect sentry-ruby v6.4.1. Always verify against docs.sentry.io/platforms/ruby/ before implementing.

Phase 1: Detect

# Existing Sentry gems
grep -i sentry Gemfile 2>/dev/null

# Framework
grep -iE '\brails\b|\bsinatra\b' Gemfile 2>/dev/null

# Web server — Puma triggers queue time guidance
grep -iE '\bpuma\b' Gemfile 2>/dev/null

# Background jobs
grep -iE '\bsidekiq\b|\bresque\b|\bdelayed_job\b' Gemfile 2>/dev/null

# Competitor monitoring tools — triggers migration path if found
grep -iE '\bappsignal\b|\bhoneybadger\b|\bbugsnag\b|\brollbar\b|\bairbrake\b' Gemfile 2>/dev/null

# Scheduled jobs — triggers Crons recommendation
grep -iE '\bsidekiq-cron\b|\bclockwork\b|\bwhenever\b|\brufus-scheduler\b' Gemfile 2>/dev/null
grep -rn "Sidekiq::Cron\|Clockwork\|every.*do" config/ lib/ --include="*.rb" 2>/dev/null | head -10

# OpenTelemetry tracing — check for SDK + instrumentations
grep -iE '\bopentelemetry-sdk\b|\bopentelemetry-instrumentation\b' Gemfile 2>/dev/null
grep -rn "OpenTelemetry::SDK\.configure\|\.use_all\|\.in_span" config/ lib/ app/ --include="*.rb" 2>/dev/null | head -5

# Existing metric patterns (StatsD, Datadog, Prometheus)
grep -rE "(statsd|dogstatsd|prometheus|\.gauge|\.histogram|\.increment|\.timing)" \
  app/ lib/ --include="*.rb" 2>/dev/null | grep -v "_spec\|_test" | head -20

# Companion frontend
cat package.json frontend/package.json web/package.json 2>/dev/null | grep -E '"@sentry|"sentry-'

Route from what you find:

• Competitor detected (appsignal, honeybadger, bugsnag, rollbar, airbrake) → load ${SKILL_ROOT}/references/migration.md first; delete the competitor initializer as part of migration
• Sentry already present → skip to Phase 2 to configure features
• Rails → use sentry-rails + config/initializers/sentry.rb
• Rack/Sinatra → sentry-ruby + Sentry::Rack::CaptureExceptions middleware
• Sidekiq → add sentry-sidekiq; recommend Metrics if existing metric patterns found
• Puma detected → queue time capture is automatic (v6.4.0+), but the reverse proxy must set X-Request-Start header; see ${SKILL_ROOT}/references/tracing.md → "Request Queue Time"
• OTel tracing detected (opentelemetry-sdk + instrumentations in Gemfile, or OpenTelemetry::SDK.configure in source) → use OTLP path: config.otlp.enabled = true; do not set traces_sample_rate; Sentry links errors to OTel traces automatically

Phase 2: Recommend

Lead with a concrete proposal — don't ask open-ended questions:

OTel tracing detected: "I see OpenTelemetry tracing in the project. I recommend Sentry's OTLP integration for tracing (via your existing OTel setup) + Error Monitoring + Sentry Logging [+ Metrics/Crons if applicable]. Shall I proceed?"

No OTel: "I recommend Error Monitoring + Tracing + Logging [+ Metrics if applicable]. Shall I proceed?"

Phase 3: Guide

Install

Rails:

# Gemfile
gem "sentry-ruby"
gem "sentry-rails"
gem "sentry-sidekiq"      # if using Sidekiq
gem "sentry-resque"       # if using Resque
gem "sentry-delayed_job"  # if using DelayedJob

Rack / Sinatra / plain Ruby:

gem "sentry-ruby"

Run bundle install.

Framework Integration

Init — Rails (config/initializers/sentry.rb)

Sentry.init do |config|
  config.dsn = ENV["SENTRY_DSN"]
  config.spotlight = Rails.env.development?  # local Spotlight UI; no DSN needed in dev
  config.breadcrumbs_logger = [:active_support_logger, :http_logger]
  config.send_default_pii = true
  config.traces_sample_rate = 1.0  # lower to 0.05–0.2 in production
  config.enable_logs = true
  # Metrics on by default; disable with: config.enable_metrics = false
end

sentry-rails auto-instruments ActionController, ActiveRecord, ActiveJob, ActionMailer.

Init — Rack / Sinatra

require "sentry-ruby"

Sentry.init do |config|
  config.dsn = ENV["SENTRY_DSN"]
  config.spotlight = ENV["RACK_ENV"] == "development"
  config.breadcrumbs_logger = [:sentry_logger, :http_logger]
  config.send_default_pii = true
  config.traces_sample_rate = 1.0
  config.enable_logs = true
end

use Sentry::Rack::CaptureExceptions  # in config.ru, before app middleware

Init — Sidekiq standalone

require "sentry-ruby"
require "sentry-sidekiq"

Sentry.init do |config|
  config.dsn = ENV["SENTRY_DSN"]
  config.spotlight = ENV.fetch("RAILS_ENV", "development") == "development"
  config.breadcrumbs_logger = [:sentry_logger]
  config.traces_sample_rate = 1.0
  config.enable_logs = true
end

Environment variables

SENTRY_DSN=https://xxx@oYYY.ingest.sentry.io/ZZZ
SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT=production   # overrides RAILS_ENV / RACK_ENV
SENTRY_RELEASE=my-app@1.0.0

Feature reference files

Walk through features one at a time. Load the reference file for each, follow its steps, and verify before moving to the next:

For each feature: Read ${SKILL_ROOT}/references/<feature>.md, follow steps exactly, verify it works.

Configuration Reference

Key Sentry.init Options

Environment Variables

Options set in Sentry.init override environment variables.

Verification

Local dev (no DSN needed) — Spotlight:

npx @spotlightjs/spotlight          # browser UI at http://localhost:8969
# or stream events to terminal:
npx @spotlightjs/spotlight tail traces --format json

config.spotlight = Rails.env.development? (already in the init block above) routes events to the local sidecar automatically.

With a real DSN:

Sentry.capture_message("Sentry Ruby SDK test")

Nothing appears? Set config.debug = true and check stdout. Verify DSN format: https://<key>@o<org>.ingest.sentry.io/<project>.

Phase 4: Cross-Link

cat package.json frontend/package.json web/package.json 2>/dev/null | grep -E '"@sentry|"sentry-'

For trace stitching between Ruby backend and JS frontend, see references/tracing.md → "Frontend trace stitching".

Troubleshooting