Ruby has long been celebrated for its vibrant, community-driven open source ecosystem. From Rails revolutionizing web development to RubyGems democratizing package management, the language thrives on collaborative governance and volunteer maintainership.
The Ruby community has built critical infrastructure through decades of unpaid labor. Projects like Bundler, RubyGems, and countless gems power millions of applications worldwide, maintained by passionate developers.
Unfortunately, something deeply troubling has transpired over recent weeks that has sent ripples through the Ruby community.
Something Smells Fishy
On September 9, 2025, HSBT (Hiroshi Shibata) unilaterally renamed the RubyGems GitHub enterprise to "Ruby Central," added Marty Haught as owner, and stripped all other maintainers of their permissions without consultation or consent.
When challenged, HSBT refused to reverse these changes, claiming he needed Haught's permission. On September 15, some changes were rolled back, but Haught remained as owner despite other maintainers never agreeing to his appointment.
September 17 brought a Zoom meeting where Haught discussed "operational planning" with maintainers. He explained the distinction between RubyGems source code (community-owned) and the RubyGems Service (operated by Ruby Central), seemingly understanding the separation.
On September 18, the final blow landed. Haught removed all admins from RubyGems and Bundler teams, disabled their email accounts, and revoked ownership of critical gems. Ruby maintainer André Arko was literally on-call when his access vanished.
Ellen Dash (Puppy/Duckinator), a decade-long maintainer, broke the story on September 19, calling it a "hostile takeover" and announcing her resignation.
In response to all this, Ruby Central's official stand framed the takeover as necessary for supply chain security. They cited legal counsel, security audits, and fiduciary duty as justification for seizing control from long-standing community maintainers.
Executive Director Shan Cureton released a video claiming sponsors demanded action on security concerns. She insisted the changes were temporary while new operator agreements were finalized, though sources suggest permanent exclusions were planned.
To New Beginnings?
Spinel is a worker-owned collective founded by André Arko, Samuel Giddins, and Kasper Timm Hansen. These guys aren't newcomers but some of the architects behind Ruby's foundational infrastructure.
Their flagship offering is rv, a tool that aims to replace the fragmented Ruby tooling ecosystem. It promises to handle everything rvm, rbenv, chruby, bundler, rubygems, and others—all at once while redefining how Ruby development tools should work.
And, just so you know, André Arko maintained Bundler and RubyGems.org infrastructure for over a decade. Samuel Giddins led RubyGems security efforts. Kasper Timm Hansen served on the Rails core team from 2016 to 2022 and was one of its top contributors.
Spinel operates on retainer agreements with companies needing Ruby expertise instead of depending on sponsors who can withdraw support or demand control. This model maintains independence while ensuring sustainability for the maintainers.
If you are looking for my personal opinion, then what's happening with Ruby is the standard embrace, extend, extinguish approach usually employed by Big Tech. I hope Spinel's offering is able to do things differently while gaining some market share.
Suggested Read 📖
Sourav Rudra
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