thibautbaissac/rails_ai_agents/mailer-patterns

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Creates minimal Action Mailer classes with bundled notification patterns following 37signals conventions. Use when sending emails, creating notification systems, digest emails, or when user mentions mailers, emails, notifications, or transactional messages. WHEN NOT: For background job scheduling (use job-patterns), for event-driven triggers (use event-tracking).

Install

npx vskill@latest install thibautbaissac/rails_ai_agents/mailer-patterns

SKILL.md

Mailer Patterns

Philosophy: Minimal Mailers, Bundled Notifications

  • Plain-text first, minimal HTML styling with inline CSS
  • Bundle notifications instead of sending one email per event
  • Transactional emails only (no marketing campaigns)
  • deliver_later for individual emails; deliver_now is acceptable inside background jobs that already run asynchronously (e.g., digest delivery jobs)
  • Email previews for development
  • No email service abstraction layers (use Action Mailer directly)

Project Knowledge

Stack: Action Mailer (built-in), Solid Queue for background delivery, email previews in development, plain text + HTML multipart emails.

Multi-tenancy: Account-scoped emails, from address includes account context, unsubscribe links scoped to account.

Commands:

bash
rails generate mailer Comment mentioned # Generate mailer
rails generate mailer Digest daily_activity # With methods
# Visit http://localhost:3000/rails/mailers # Preview emails

Pattern 1: Simple Transactional Mailers

ruby
# app/mailers/application_mailer.rb
class ApplicationMailer < ActionMailer::Base
default from: ENV.fetch("MAILER_FROM_ADDRESS", "Fizzy <support@fizzy.do>")
layout "mailer"
end
# app/mailers/comment_mailer.rb
class CommentMailer < ApplicationMailer
def mentioned(mention)
@mention = mention
@comment = mention.comment
@card = mention.comment.card
@account = mention.account
mail(
to: mention.user.email,
subject: "#{mention.creator.name} mentioned you in #{@card.title}"
)
end
def new_comment(comment, recipient)
@comment = comment
@card = comment.card
@account = comment.account
mail(
to: recipient.email,
subject: "New comment on #{@card.title}"
)
end
end
# app/mailers/membership_mailer.rb
class MembershipMailer < ApplicationMailer
def invitation(membership)
@membership = membership
@account = membership.account
@inviter = membership.inviter
mail(
to: membership.user.email,
subject: "#{@inviter.name} invited you to #{@account.name}"
)
end
end
# app/mailers/card_mailer.rb
class CardMailer < ApplicationMailer
def assigned(assignment)
@assignment = assignment
@card = assignment.card
@account = assignment.account
mail(
to: assignment.user.email,
subject: "#{assignment.assigner.name} assigned you to #{@card.title}"
)
end
end

Pattern 2: Email Templates

See @references/mailer-templates.md for full template examples.

Always create both .text.erb and .html.erb versions:

erb
<%# app/views/comment_mailer/mentioned.text.erb %>
Hi <%= @mention.user.name %>,
<%= @mention.creator.name %> mentioned you in a comment on <%= @card.title %>:
"<%= @comment.body %>"
View the card: <%= account_board_card_url(@account, @card.board, @card) %>
---
You're receiving this because you were mentioned.
<%# app/views/comment_mailer/mentioned.html.erb %>
<p>Hi <%= @mention.user.name %>,</p>
<p><%= @mention.creator.name %> mentioned you in a comment on
<strong><%= @card.title %></strong>:</p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 3px solid #ccc; padding-left: 15px; color: #666;">
<%= simple_format(@comment.body) %>
</blockquote>
<p><%= link_to "View the card",
account_board_card_url(@account, @card.board, @card),
style: "color: #0066cc; text-decoration: none;" %></p>

Pattern 3: Bundled Notifications (Digest Emails)

See @references/bundled-notifications.md for full details.

ruby
# app/mailers/digest_mailer.rb
class DigestMailer < ApplicationMailer
def daily_activity(user, account, activities)
@user = user
@account = account
@activities = activities
@grouped_activities = activities.group_by(&:subject_type)
mail(
to: user.email,
subject: "Daily activity summary for #{account.name}"
)
end
def pending_notifications(user, notifications)
@user = user
@notifications = notifications
@accounts = notifications.map(&:account).uniq
mail(
to: user.email,
subject: "You have #{notifications.size} pending notifications"
)
end
end
# app/models/notification_bundler.rb
class NotificationBundler
def initialize(user)
@user = user
end
def should_send_digest?
pending_notifications.count >= 5 ||
oldest_pending_notification_age > 1.hour
end
def send_digest
return unless should_send_digest?
notifications = pending_notifications
DigestMailer.pending_notifications(@user, notifications).deliver_later
notifications.update_all(sent_at: Time.current)
end
private
def pending_notifications
@user.notifications.where(sent_at: nil)
.where("created_at > ?", 1.hour.ago)
.order(created_at: :desc)
end
end
# app/jobs/send_digest_emails_job.rb
class SendDigestEmailsJob < ApplicationJob
queue_as :mailers
def perform(frequency: :daily)
User.where(digest_frequency: frequency).find_each do |user|
user.accounts.each do |account|
activities = user.activities_for_digest(account, frequency)
if activities.any?
DigestMailer.daily_activity(user, account, activities).deliver_now
end
end
end
end
end
# config/recurring.yml
mailers:
daily_digest:
class: SendDigestEmailsJob
args: [{ frequency: 'daily' }]
schedule: every day at 8am
queue: mailers

Pattern 4: Background Delivery

Always use deliver_later in production. Trigger from model callbacks:

ruby
class Comment < ApplicationRecord
after_create_commit :notify_subscribers
after_create_commit :notify_mentions
private
def notify_subscribers
card.subscribers.each do |subscriber|
next if subscriber == creator
next unless subscriber.wants_email?(account, :comments)
CommentMailer.new_comment(self, subscriber).deliver_later
end
end
def notify_mentions
mentions.each do |mention|
next unless mention.user.wants_email?(account, :mentions)
CommentMailer.mentioned(mention).deliver_later
end
end
end

Pattern 5: Email Preferences and Unsubscribe

ruby
class User < ApplicationRecord
has_many :email_preferences, dependent: :destroy
enum :digest_frequency, { never: 0, daily: 1, weekly: 2 }, prefix: true
def wants_email?(account, type)
pref = email_preferences.find_by(account: account, preference_type: type)
pref.nil? || pref.enabled?
end
end
class EmailPreference < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :user
belongs_to :account
enum :preference_type, { mentions: 0, comments: 1, assignments: 2, digests: 3 }
validates :preference_type, uniqueness: { scope: [:user_id, :account_id] }
end

Pattern 6: Email Previews

ruby
# test/mailers/previews/comment_mailer_preview.rb
class CommentMailerPreview < ActionMailer::Preview
def mentioned
mention = Mention.first || create_sample_mention
CommentMailer.mentioned(mention)
end
private
def create_sample_mention
user = User.first
account = Account.first
board = account.boards.first
card = board.cards.first
comment = card.comments.create!(body: "Hey @alice", creator: user)
Mention.create!(user: user, comment: comment, creator: user, account: account)
end
end

Visit previews at http://localhost:3000/rails/mailers.

Pattern 7: Minimal Email Layout

erb
<%# app/views/layouts/mailer.text.erb %>
<%= yield %>
---
<%= @account&.name || "Example App" %>
<%= root_url %>
<%# app/views/layouts/mailer.html.erb %>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<style>
body { margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: -apple-system, sans-serif;
font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; color: #333; background: #f5f5f5; }
a { color: #0066cc; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<table style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto;" role="presentation">
<tr><td style="background: white; padding: 40px 30px;"><%= yield %></td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding: 20px 30px; text-align: center; color: #999; font-size: 12px;">
<%= @account&.name || "Example App" %><br><%= link_to root_url, root_url %>
</td></tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

Delivery Configuration

ruby
# config/environments/production.rb
config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
config.action_mailer.perform_deliveries = true
config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { host: ENV["APP_HOST"] }
# config/environments/development.rb
config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :letter_opener
config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { host: "localhost", port: 3000 }
# config/environments/test.rb
config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :test
config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { host: "example.com" }

Boundaries

Always
  • Create both .text.erb and .html.erb templates
  • Use deliver_later for individual emails; deliver_now is acceptable inside background jobs that already run asynchronously (e.g., digest delivery jobs)
  • Check user email preferences before sending
  • Include unsubscribe links in emails
  • Use inline CSS for HTML emails (no external stylesheets)
  • Scope emails to account context
  • Create email previews for development
Ask First
  • Digest frequency and bundling thresholds
  • Whether to include inline attachments (logos)
  • SMTP provider configuration
Never
  • Send one email per event (bundle notifications)
  • Mix marketing and transactional emails
  • Use external CSS in email templates
  • Build email service abstraction layers
  • Send emails synchronously in request cycle
  • Skip email preferences check

Security

  • Security scanPassed, 95 of 100Pattern checks on the skill's files.
  • Model reviewPassed

Quality evaluation

  • Task evaluationNot runNo evaluation yet. Run one in Skill Studio.

Source

Popularity

Repository stars
605
Repository forks
74
7-day trend score
32

Stars and forks are for the whole GitHub repository, not this skill alone. Refreshed 24 Jun 2026, 4 months ago.

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