A skeleton web application configured to use Sinatra and ActiveRecord with some simple conventions:

• views directory set to app/views/(current controller name)

• default layout configured to app/views/layouts/application.erb, with per-controller layouts app/views/layouts/(current controller name).erb used first

• database tables using non-auto-incrementing IDs (see UniqueId)

Clone sinatree:

$ git clone https://github.com/jcs/sinatree.git
$ cd sinatree

Then install Bundler dependencies:

sinatree$ bundle config set --local path vendor/bundle
sinatree$ bundle install

Initialize a session secret key:

sinatree$ ruby -e 'require "securerandom"; print SecureRandom.hex(64)' > config/session_secret

To create a database table users for a new User model:

sinatree$ $EDITOR `bundle exec rake db:create_migration NAME=create_user_model`

class CreateUserModel < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.2]
  def change
    create_table :users do |t|
      t.timestamps
      t.string :username
      t.string :password_digest
    end
  end
end

Then run the database migrations:

sinatree$ bundle exec rake db:migrate

The new User model can be created as app/models/user.rb:

class User < DBModel
  has_secure_password
end

A root controller can be created as app/controllers/home_controller.rb:

class HomeController < ApplicationController
  self.path = :root

  get "/" do
    "Hello, world"
  end
end

To run a web server with your application:

sinatree$ bin/server

To access an IRB console:

sinatree$ bin/console

Copyright (c) 2017-2025 joshua stein <jcs@jcs.org>

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.