Add Rails 8.1 Local CI Runner

[fagnerpereira]

Summary

Configure Rails 8.1's new local CI feature to run the full CI pipeline locally before pushing code.

Background

Rails 8.1 introduced a local CI runner that allows developers to execute the entire CI pipeline on their machines. This was announced in the Rails 8.1 release and provides a way to catch issues before committing.

Current Status

I've already implemented this in PR #1105, but I'm separating it into its own PR to maintain clear separation of concerns. My apologies for mixing multiple features in my first contribution (related to #1079) - lesson learned! 😅

Implementation example (already existent in the current codebase)

Add CI.run block to run locally with bin/ci:

CI.run do
  step "Setup", "bin/setup --skip-server"
  step "Style: Ruby", "bin/rubocop"
  step "Security: Gem audit", "bin/bundler-audit"
  step "Security: Importmap vulnerability audit", "bin/importmap audit"
  step "Security: Brakeman code analysis", "bin/brakeman --quiet --no-pager --exit-on-warn --exit-on-error"
  step "Tests: Rails", "bin/rails test"
  step "Tests: Seeds", "env RAILS_ENV=test bin/rails db:seed:replant"
  
  # Optional: Requires `gh` CLI with `gh extension install basecamp/gh-signoff`
  if success?
    step "Signoff: All systems go. Ready for merge and deploy.", "gh signoff"
  else
    failure "Signoff: CI failed. Do not merge or deploy.", "Fix the issues and try again."
  end
end

Benefits

• Faster Feedback Loop: Catch issues locally in seconds/minutes instead of waiting for cloud CI
• Safer Experimentation: Test CI pipeline changes locally before modifying the actual workflow
• Reduced Commit Noise: Avoid multiple fix commits trying to get CI green
• Standardized Workflow: Ensures all contributors run the same checks locally

Future potential

• Getting rid of a cloud-setup for all of CI not just feasible but desirable for many small-to-mid-sized applications
• The optional integration with gh ensures that PRs must be signed off by a passing CI run in order to be eligible to be merged.

— Rails 8.1 Announcement

Next Steps

@marcoroth - If you're agreed, I'll create a clean PR with setup + docs for easy contributor adoption.

References: Rails 8.1 Release Announcement GoRails Tutorial: Rails 8.1 Local CI Initial Implementation in PR #1105 Related Issue #1079

[adrienpoly]

Currently our CI has 3 parallel steps on GA + the deploy step on main. I think we want to keep this as it improve the speed. If we have a CI script it would only benefits when we run it locally.

Currently it is what we achieve with a mix of bin/lint and rails test:all. It could be nice yes to have a single command for that but I don't think we should replace what we have in GitHub action

[fagnerpereira]

@adrienpoly hey, nice to meet you Adrien Senpai. Maybe I expressed wrongly, bu I totally agree about use this issue as a replacemant of github action, but as a complement. For example in the PR i implemented the steps I literally copied from our ci workflow. And it was very helpfull because the result was the possibility of run our ci locally, then I fixed what was broken, then submited to the pull request to make it green. So I think the value I saw on this experience was the possibility of fix the ci locally while coding and not commit with a fix, then I wait some minutes to see that other thing failed, then I commit again, and keep repeting this until make all green.

I think replacemant is always an extreme decision, because this is a new feature and probably its going to grow maybe adding more possibilities. So its something very simple to setup, because its literally copy/paste from our ci workflow, and its done to give you this power to resolve as much things as possible before following an approach of N tries and between those tries, you wast minutes to receive a feedback, when you can have now this feature to see the fail in you environment and fix before submiting and wait.

[fagnerpereira]

some days ago by the way I think there was a contributer trying to fix a issue failing in CI, and then this came in my mind, because he would spend less time trying to findout in its on machine, investigating, debuging, etc.

[saiqulhaq]

Actually, running GitHub action workflows locally is easy There is https://github.com/nektos/act that has existed for a few years

[fagnerpereira]

@saiqulhaq I didnt know this one, I thouth it was some gap that rails core team found to try solving, because they are literally using in a "production" level to decrease the time they had with their huge CI.

What do you think @adrienpoly @marcoroth ? Its pratically implemented, maybe we could give a try to this simple native solution, and if contributors feel that is usefull we can improve, test new approachs, or even test this one suggested by our friend @saiqulhaq , which I admit I didnt know, but I will probably experiment to understand better

[adrienpoly]

yes please go ahead and generate a bin/ci script to run locally, I think that can be useful

[fagnerpereira]

@adrienpoly sure thing, could you assign for me please and I send the pr asap. If at the end you guys feels not so usefull, delete things is always easier at least 😅