Publishing & Forking

Publish your apps to for others to discover, and fork existing apps into your own live projects.

Publishing and forking is currently available to selected users during early access. Get in touch if you'd like to publish.

Overview

RubyOnVibes is both a development platform and a distribution platform. You can publish any app you build, and anyone can fork a published app into their own fully running project.

App maintainers will be given the ability to price their apps in order to earn revenue when others fork.

Publishing

Publishing turns your project into a package — a shareable snapshot of your app with screenshots, description, and version history.

What Gets Published

  • Your app's codebase
  • Screenshots of your running app
  • Title, description, and version number
  • Tags for discoverability in the gallery

How to Publish

  1. Open your project in the editor
  2. Click Publish in the project settings (selected users only, to start)
  3. Add screenshots, description, and version (semantic versioning: 1.0.0)
  4. Share your package URL with users who may want to fork it

Coming Soon

  1. Your app appears in the public Template Library

Published apps use semantic versioning. You can publish updates as new versions while keeping the original available.

Forking

Forking creates a new live project from a published package. It's not just cloning code — it's spinning up a fully running app that you own.

What Happens When You Fork

  1. The published app's codebase is copied into a new project
  2. A new Fly.io machine is provisioned with its own database and volumes
  3. Pre-built assets and databases are deployed (no build step needed)
  4. You get a live URL within minutes
  5. The AI agent (Ada) is ready to customize the app for you

Fork vs. Start From Scratch

Fork New Project
Starting point Working app with features AI integrated Rails template
Time to live URL ~3-5 minutes ~3-7 minutes
Customization Modify existing features Build from the default template
Best for "I want something like this, but..." "I have a completely new idea"

Forked apps are fully independent — changes you make don't affect the original, and updates to the original don't affect your fork.

Secret Definitions

Published packages can define secret definitions — environment variables that the forking user needs to provide (API keys, service credentials, etc.). These are prompted during the fork process and securely injected into the new app.

Coming Soon: Paid Creator Forking

We're building support for paid forking — creators will be able to set a price on their published apps. When another user forks a paid app, the creator earns revenue.

How It Will Work

  • Creators set a one-time fork price on their published package
  • Users pay to fork, getting a fully running copy of the app they can customize
  • Creators earn a share of each fork sale
  • RubyOnVibes handles payments, provisioning, and delivery

This turns RubyOnVibes into a marketplace where builders can earn passive income from their work. Publish a great app, and every fork puts money in your pocket.

If you're interested in publishing paid apps, get in touch — we're onboarding early creators now.