Embedded Dashboard

Run the Rails Pulse dashboard inside your main Rails app — the default mode, requiring no extra processes or infrastructure.

The embedded dashboard is the default mode. The Rails Pulse engine mounts directly into your app and the dashboard runs in the same process, served by the same web server.

Setup

Mount the engine in your routes file:

# config/routes.rb
mount RailsPulse::Engine, at: "/rails_pulse"

That’s it. The dashboard is available at /rails_pulse and instrumentation starts automatically.

Key configuration options

RailsPulse.configure do |config|
  # Enable or disable Rails Pulse entirely
  config.enabled = true

  # Whether to mount the dashboard UI (set to false if moving to standalone/separate mode)
  config.mount_dashboard = true

  # The path Rails Pulse is mounted at — set this if you mount it somewhere other than /rails_pulse
  # so the middleware knows not to track its own requests
  config.mount_path = "/rails_pulse"
end

When to use it

The embedded mode is the right choice when:

  • You’re getting started or running in development
  • Your app is low-to-medium traffic and the monitoring overhead is acceptable
  • You don’t need the dashboard to stay up independently of your app

Limitations

  • The dashboard goes down with your app — restarts, deploys, and crashes take the dashboard with them
  • Shares your connection pool — Rails Pulse DB writes use connections from the same pool as your app
  • Scales with your app — every app instance serves the dashboard, which is usually unnecessary

If any of these become a problem, migrating to Standalone Dashboard or Separate Dashboard requires only a config change.

Next Steps