How to See All Routes in Rails: Simple Guide

To see all routes in a Rails application, run the command rails routes in your terminal. This command lists all defined routes with their HTTP methods, paths, and controller actions.

Syntax

The basic command to list routes is rails routes. You can add options like -c CONTROLLER to filter routes by controller or --expanded to see detailed output.

• rails routes: Lists all routes.
• -c CONTROLLER: Shows routes for a specific controller.
• --expanded: Displays routes with extra details.

bash

rails routes
rails routes -c users
rails routes --expanded

Example

This example shows how to list all routes in a Rails app. The output includes HTTP verbs, paths, controller#action, and route names.

bash

rails routes

Output

Prefix Verb   URI Pattern                  Controller#Action
users  GET    /users(.:format)             users#index
       POST   /users(.:format)             users#create
new_user GET  /users/new(.:format)         users#new
edit_user GET /users/:id/edit(.:format)    users#edit
user   GET    /users/:id(.:format)         users#show
       PATCH  /users/:id(.:format)         users#update
       PUT    /users/:id(.:format)         users#update
       DELETE /users/:id(.:format)         users#destroy

Common Pitfalls

Sometimes developers forget to run the command inside the Rails project directory, causing errors. Also, using rake routes is legacy; prefer rails routes in Rails 5 and later. Filtering routes incorrectly or missing the right controller name can show no results.

bash

Wrong:
rake routes

Right:
rails routes

Wrong filtering:
rails routes -c wrongcontroller

Right filtering:
rails routes -c users

Quick Reference

Command	Description
rails routes	List all routes
rails routes -c CONTROLLER	Filter routes by controller
rails routes --expanded	Show detailed route info
rails routes | grep keyword	Search routes by keyword

Key Takeaways

Use rails routes to list all routes in your Rails app.

Run the command inside your Rails project folder to avoid errors.

Use -c CONTROLLER to filter routes by controller name.

Avoid using legacy rake routes in modern Rails versions.

Use --expanded for more detailed route information.