Run Rake tasks

Rake is a popular task runner for Ruby and Rails applications. Rails provides a number of predefined tasks, such as tasks for database migrations and tests. You can also create custom tasks to automate specific actions: run code analysis tools, back up databases, and so on.

RubyMine provides a convenient way to run, debug, and reload Rake tasks. You can also use run/debug configurations to run tasks with specific parameters: pass task arguments, specify environment variables, select a Ruby interpreter, and so on.

Before running a Rake task

Make sure the rake gem is installed to the project interpreter.
Check that the Rakefile is located in the project's root.

Run a task

RubyMine allows you to run an arbitrary Rake task. For example, let’s see how to run the db:migrate task required for migrating a database in a Rails application.

Run a task using Run Anything or the Rake Tasks popup

Do one of the following:
- Press Ctrl twice and start typing db:migrate in the invoked popup. Select rake db:migrate from the list and press Enter.
- Go to Tools | Run Rake Task Ctrl+Alt+R. In the invoked popup, start typing db:migrate, select db:migrate, and press Enter.
In modern Rails versions, some commands that were previously available as Rake tasks, for example routes, are now part of the Rails command interface and are invoked using rails <command>.
Such commands are not listed in the Rake Tasks or Run Anything popup. To run them, use a Rails run/debug configuration or the terminal. For example, to run rails routes, create a Rails run/debug configuration and specify routes as the command.
In the invoked Execute 'db:migrate' dialog, select the required migration version and environment. Click OK.
Note that for other types of Rake tasks RubyMine provides the Arguments option for specifying the arguments to be passed to the task.

Run a task from the editor

In a *.rake file, do one of the following:
- Click the Run Rake Task button in the gutter next to the required task.
- Place the caret at the required task name and press Alt+Enter.
Depending on whether you want to run or debug a task, select Run '<task name>' or Debug '<task name>'. Press Enter.

After you've run a Rake task, RubyMine automatically creates a temporary run/debug configuration. You can customize this configuration to control how the task is executed: pass task arguments, specify environment variables, select a working directory, and so on. Then, you can save the customized configuration to quickly run it in the future.

Run a task using a run/debug configuration

RubyMine automatically creates Rake run configurations for running the Minitest and RSpec tests in Rails applications: test and spec. You can run these tasks or any other task with the existing run/debug configurations in one of the following ways:

Press Ctrl twice to invoke the Run Anything popup. Start typing the required configuration name, select it from the list, and press Enter.
Select the desired configuration on the toolbar and click Shift+F10.
Go to Run | Run... Alt+Shift+F10 and select the desired configuration from the list and press Enter.

Reload Rake tasks

Sometimes it is necessary to reload Rake tasks. For example, this can be useful if you created a custom task and need to run it. To reload Rake tasks, do one of the following:

Press Ctrl+Shift+A and start typing Reload Rake Tasks. Select this item from the list and press Enter.
Go to Tools | Run Rake Task Ctrl+Alt+R. In the invoked popup, select rake --tasks and press Enter.

Configure parameters for running a task

When you run a Rake task for the first time, RubyMine automatically creates a corresponding Rake temporary configuration, which can be saved. If necessary, you can create the Rake run/debug configuration manually from the predefined template.

These settings do not modify the Rake task itself. They only define how RubyMine runs the task.

To customize the run/debug configuration, do the following:

Open the Run/Debug Configuration dialog in one of the following ways:
- Select Run | Edit Configurations from the main menu.
- With the Navigation bar visible (View | Appearance | Navigation Bar), choose Edit Configurations from the run/debug configuration selector.
- Press Alt+Shift+F10 and then press 0.
In the opened Run/Debug Configurations dialog, select the required configuration in the Rake group, and specify its settings.

Run/debug configuration: Rake

Configuration tab

Item	Description
Name	In this field, specify the name of the current run/debug configuration.
Task name	Specify the name of the Rake task to be executed. Note that you can use autocompletion (`Ctrl+Space`) to see the available tasks. If you don't see the desired Rake task in the dropdown, try reloading tasks.
Arguments	Specify arguments to be passed to the Rake task. These arguments should be separated with commas. For example: Create the sample Rake task as shown below: task :sample, [:first, :last] do \|t, args\| puts "First name is #{args.first}" puts "Last name is #{args.last}" end Create the Rake run configuration and specify its settings in the following way: Task name: `sample` Arguments: `"Andrew", "Fuller"` Run the created configuration. The program will return: First name is Andrew Last name is Fuller
Turn on invoke/execute tracing, enable full backtrace `--trace`	Enable the `--trace` Rake command-line option.
Do a dry run without executing actions `-dry-run`	Enable the `--dry-run` Rake command-line option.
Display the tasks and dependencies, then exit `--prereqs`	Enable the `--prereqs` Rake command-line option.
Attach test runner UI for frameworks	Depending on the used testing framework, enable the required test runner UI for performing tests.
Working directory	Specify the working directory used by the running task. For example, this option is in effect when the running script loads other scripts by relative paths.
Environment variables	Specify the list of environment variables as the name-value pairs, separated with semi-colons. Alternatively, click to create variables and specify their values in the Environment Variables dialog.
Ruby arguments	Specify the command-line arguments to be passed to the Ruby interpreter.
Ruby interpreter	Specify the desired Ruby interpreter. You can choose the project default Ruby interpreter, or select a different one from the list of configured Ruby interpreters.

24 April 2026