Authentication Flow

Rails 8 Authentication

Overview

Rails 8 includes a built-in authentication generator that creates a complete, secure authentication system without external gems.

Quick Start

# Generate authentication
bin/rails generate authentication

# Run migrations
bin/rails db:migrate

This creates:

• User model with has_secure_password
• Session model for secure sessions
• Current model for request-local storage
• Authentication concern for controllers
• Session and Password controllers
• Login/logout views

Generated Structure

app/
├── models/
│   ├── user.rb              # User with has_secure_password
│   ├── session.rb           # Session tracking
│   └── current.rb           # Current.user accessor
├── controllers/
│   ├── sessions_controller.rb      # Login/logout
│   ├── passwords_controller.rb     # Password reset
│   └── concerns/
│       └── authentication.rb       # Auth helpers
└── views/
    ├── sessions/
    │   └── new.html.erb     # Login form
    └── passwords/
        ├── new.html.erb     # Forgot password
        └── edit.html.erb    # Reset password

Core Components

User Model

# app/models/user.rb
class User  { _1.strip.downcase }

  validates :email_address, presence: true, uniqueness: true,
            format: { with: URI::MailTo::EMAIL_REGEXP }
end

Session Model

# app/models/session.rb
class Session 

# In models (use sparingly)
Current.user

Login Flow

# app/controllers/sessions_controller.rb
class SessionsController  ?', 30.days.ago)
end

def terminate_all_sessions_except(current_session)
  sessions.where.not(id: current_session.id).destroy_all
end

Rate Limiting

# app/controllers/sessions_controller.rb
rate_limit to: 10, within: 3.minutes, only: :create,
           with: -> { redirect_to new_session_path, alert: "Too many attempts" }

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: ThibautBaissac
• Source: ThibautBaissac/railsai_agents
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://thibautbaissac.github.io/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.