FriendlyId is the “Swiss Army bulldozer” of slugging and permalink plugins for ActiveRecord. It allows you to create pretty URL’s and work with human-friendly strings as if they were numeric ids for ActiveRecord models.
Star History
Momentum
+156
STARS · LAST 30 DAYS
5
PER DAY
#22
MOST-STARRED Ruby
| Window | 7 days | 30 days | 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars gained | +35 | +156 | +450 |
| Per day | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Forks gained | +3 | +12 | +30 |
friendly_id gained 156 stars in the last 30 days, about 5 a day, and now has 6.2K. It is about 18 years old and has averaged roughly 346 stars a year. It ranks #22 among Ruby repositories and #934 across all languages on GitHubRepo.
Trending Record
5
DAYS ON TRENDING
#679
BEST RANK
Sep 24, 2026
FIRST APPEARANCE
Active
STATUS TODAY
friendly_id has maintained a continuous presence across global trending indexes, peaking at #679. Below is the 30-day activity profile:
💡 Overview
friendly_id is an open-source project written in Ruby: FriendlyId is the “Swiss Army bulldozer” of slugging and permalink plugins for ActiveRecord. It allows you to create pretty URL’s and work with human-friendly strings as if they were numeric ids for ActiveRecord models.
Engineered for speed, consistency, and developer ease, it solves common hurdles in friendly-url, plugin, rails. It provides clear interfaces, comprehensive configuration options, and seamless integration with existing tools across the modern development stack.
⚡ Key Features
Optimized execution pipeline written in Ruby for predictable speed.
Zero-friction configuration with comprehensive sensible defaults out of the box.
Cross-platform runtime support across Linux, macOS, and Windows environments.
Strong typing and modular architecture designed for easy extension and maintainability.
Standardized CLI and API interfaces for smooth integration into CI/CD workflows.
Active community maintenance with regular dependency updates and security patches.
📥 Installation
$ git clone https://github.com/norman/friendly_id.git
cd friendly_id⚙ System Requirements
Platforms
- • macOS
- • Linux
- • Windows
Runtime & Dependencies
Ruby >= 3.1 with Bundler
Architecture
x86_64, ARM64 (Apple Silicon & Graviton)
🧠 How It Works
friendly_id coordinates its core functionality through a modular Ruby pipeline. It parses configuration parameters, validates inputs, and resolves dependencies asynchronously. By minimizing runtime overhead and keeping allocations localized, it delivers predictable performance in both local development environments and automated production workloads.
🎯 Production Use Cases
Autonomous AI Agents
Orchestrate intelligent workflows and tool-calling routines with friendly_id.
Model Inference & Prompting
Integrate fast, local or cloud-hosted generative AI models directly into production code.
Context Memory & RAG
Augment language models with dynamic vector retrieval and structured project memory.
Developer Productivity
Automate repetitive engineering tasks, code generation, and test creation using AI agents.
🚀 Getting Started
Install friendly_id using your package manager: `git clone https://github.com/norman/friendly_id.git`
Initialize your project workspace or configuration file for friendly_id.
Import friendly_id into your codebase or invoke it directly from your terminal.
Execute your test suite or run `friendly_id --help` to verify successful setup.
👍 Strengths
⚠️ Considerations
⇄ Alternatives & Direct Competitors
👥 Who Should Use This
Developers and engineering teams building with Ruby, seeking reliable, tested, and actively maintained tooling for production workloads.
🏆 Nearby in the Rankings
norman/friendly_id is currently ranked #934 by stars across every repository tracked on GitHubRepo. These are adjacent projects:
| Rank | Repository | Language | Stars | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #929 | alexpasmantier/television | Rust | ★ 6.3K | Compare ↗ |
| #930 | actions/runner | C# | ★ 6.3K | Compare ↗ |
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| #932 | MessageKit/MessageKit | Swift | ★ 6.3K | Compare ↗ |
| #933 | open-meteo/open-meteo | Swift | ★ 6.3K | Compare ↗ |
| #934 | norman/friendly_id This Project | Ruby | ★ 6.2K | |
| #935 | pierrecomputer/pierre | TypeScript | ★ 6.2K | Compare ↗ |
| #936 | Neargye/magic_enum | C++ | ★ 6.2K | Compare ↗ |
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Frequently Asked Questions
What does friendly_id do? +
FriendlyId is the “Swiss Army bulldozer” of slugging and permalink plugins for ActiveRecord. It allows you to create pretty URL’s and work with human-friendly strings as if they were numeric ids for ActiveRecord models.
What language is friendly_id written in? +
The primary language is Ruby. Topics include: friendly-url, plugin, rails, ruby, slug.
Is friendly_id actively maintained? +
Yes, the last recorded push was on Aug 18, 2026 with 31 open issues being tracked.
How many stars does friendly_id have? +
friendly_id has 6,224 stars and 591 forks on GitHub.
How does friendly_id rank among GitHub repositories? +
With 6,224 stars, norman/friendly_id is ranked #934 globally across all repositories tracked on GitHubRepo and #22 among Ruby projects.
What license is friendly_id distributed under? +
The repository reports a MIT license. Always verify the repository LICENSE file for legal terms.
