---
title: Annotate gem - CreatorPlatform.xyz - Part 12
slug: annotate-gem-creatorplatform-xyz-part-12
published_at: 2022-09-19 12:50:47 +0000
updated_at: 2026-03-04 20:13:10 +0000
summary: 
description: In this episode, we'll install and use the annotate gem, a helpful tool for visualizing the database schema from the model files in a Ruby on Rails application.  00:00 Introduction 00:21 Why do we want to annotate? 00:38 Install the annotate gem 00:56 Annotate existing models  01:19 Test annotations for new models 01:40 Conclusion  Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS6F722u-R6IJfBrIRx3a2SBkAL4vUp2p  Code: https://github.com/cjavdev/creators.dev/  Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cjav_dev  #rubyonrails #ruby #rails
tags: [cjav_dev, web development tutorials, web development for beginners, vim, ruby, rails, javascript, ruby on rails, active record, ruby on rails tutorial, annotate, annotate gem, comments, db schema]
views: 499
author: CJ Avilla
url: https://www.cjav.dev/videos/annotate-gem-creatorplatform-xyz-part-12
youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19xAXtUv7c8
youtube_id: 19xAXtUv7c8
embed_url: https://www.youtube.com/embed/19xAXtUv7c8
thumbnail_url: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/19xAXtUv7c8/hqdefault.jpg
type: video
---

# Annotate gem - CreatorPlatform.xyz - Part 12

*Published: September 19, 2022*
*Views: 499*

## Watch

[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19xAXtUv7c8)

[![Annotate gem - CreatorPlatform.xyz - Part 12](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/19xAXtUv7c8/hqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19xAXtUv7c8)

## Description

In this episode, we'll install and use the annotate gem, a helpful tool for visualizing the database schema from the model files in a Ruby on Rails application.

00:00 Introduction
00:21 Why do we want to annotate?
00:38 Install the annotate gem
00:56 Annotate existing models 
01:19 Test annotations for new models
01:40 Conclusion

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS6F722u-R6IJfBrIRx3a2SBkAL4vUp2p 
Code: https://github.com/cjavdev/creators.dev/ 
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cjav_dev

#rubyonrails #ruby #rails

## Transcript

hey what's up welcome back in this episode you're going to learn all about the annotate gem and how we can use it to make our models much more easy to comprehend when we're looking at the model class the annotate gem is a very helpful gem for having when you're working with ruby on rails and if i'm looking at my account model right now i can't actually tell which columns exist on this model without going into my schema inside of the schema file i can see all the different columns that are on the accounts but it's much easier if i have a comment at the top of the file that has all those names thankfully annotate can do that for us automatically so i'm going to say bundle add annotate and put it in the development group then i can say rails g annotate colon install and that will install the rake task that we want to run every single time we annotate or every single time that we migrate our database but at this point we can run bundle exec annotate dash dash models and this will annotate our models so now if we open up the account model we can see that at the very top there is this big long comment that includes a whole bunch of schema information that can be very handy if we're working with the account now we know that it has a payouts enabled and a charges enabled column on the database if i were to generate a new model with rails g model thing and how if maybe has a name as soon as i migrate the database with railsdb migrate that is going to automatically annotate this new thing because i have that rake task enabled so if i open up thing it already has the schema information at the top including the columns that were just migrated so annotate is a very powerful uh very powerful gem super handy i use this in all of our rail all of my rails applications so that wraps up the annotate the quick annotate demo and we should be using annotate from now on all right thanks so much for watching and we'll see in the next one [Music]

---

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