rails-console

Start the Rails console

$ rails console

$ rails console [[-s|--sandbox]]

$ rails console [[-e|--environment]] [dev|test|production|...]

$ rails console [[-h|--help]]

rails console [environment]

environment
    Specifies the Rails environment to load (e.g., development, production, test). Defaults to 'development' if not specified.

The rails-console command provides an interactive environment to interact with your Rails application from the command line.
It loads the Rails environment, allowing you to execute Ruby code that interacts with your models, database, and other application components.
This makes it an invaluable tool for debugging, testing, and exploring your application's data and behavior.
It's especially useful for quickly querying the database, testing model methods, or seeding initial data. The console is powered by IRB (Interactive Ruby) or another console library like Pry, which provides features like tab completion, command history, and syntax highlighting, improving the developer experience.
You can even use it to run arbitrary Ruby code within the context of your Rails application.

Changes made in the console are persistent as long as the database transaction is committed. Be careful when modifying data in a production environment.

Once inside the console, you can access your models (e.g., User.all), perform database queries, and run any Ruby code.
Remember to use Rails helpers and methods to interact with your application's data.

Rails automatically sets up several handy aliases within the console, such as 'app' for the Rails application instance and 'helper' for access to view helpers. These aliases streamline common tasks and interactions with your application.

The rails-console command has been a core part of the Rails framework since its early versions.
It evolved alongside Rails, incorporating features like improved console libraries (IRB, Pry) and support for different Rails environments. Its primary purpose remains consistent: providing a REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop) for direct interaction with a Rails application.

rails(1), irb(1), pry(1)