From 348843186d458c24637a1f0f61428c34967007e9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2026 17:40:38 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Add IRB Prints A Helpful Welcome Prompt as a Ruby TIL

---
 README.md                                   |  3 ++-
 ruby/irb-prints-a-helpful-welcome-prompt.md | 27 +++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 ruby/irb-prints-a-helpful-welcome-prompt.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 29b4eb2..3c47ccc 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ working across different projects via [VisualMode](https://www.visualmode.dev/).
 
 For a steady stream of TILs, [sign up for my newsletter](https://visualmode.kit.com/newsletter).
 
-_1834 TILs and counting..._
+_1835 TILs and counting..._
 
 See some of the other learning resources I work on:
 
@@ -1510,6 +1510,7 @@ If you've learned something here, support my efforts writing daily TILs by
 - [Install Latest Version Of Ruby With asdf](ruby/install-latest-version-of-ruby-with-asdf.md)
 - [Invoking Rake Tasks Multiple Times](ruby/invoking-rake-tasks-multiple-times.md)
 - [IRB Has Built-In Benchmarking With Ruby 3](ruby/irb-has-built-in-benchmarking-with-ruby-3.md)
+- [IRB Prints A Helpful Welcome Prompt](ruby/irb-prints-a-helpful-welcome-prompt.md)
 - [Join URI Path Parts](ruby/join-uri-path-parts.md)
 - [Jump Out Of A Nested Context With Throw/Catch](ruby/jump-out-of-a-nested-context-with-throw-catch.md)
 - [Last Raised Exception In The Call Stack](ruby/last-raised-exception-in-the-call-stack.md)
diff --git a/ruby/irb-prints-a-helpful-welcome-prompt.md b/ruby/irb-prints-a-helpful-welcome-prompt.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4fdffd7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ruby/irb-prints-a-helpful-welcome-prompt.md
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# IRB Prints A Helpful Welcome Prompt
+
+I've been using `irb` for over 15 years as a REPL for executing Ruby code. It
+has always been pretty plain in a lot of ways. For this reason, I often used
+[`pry`](https://github.com/pry/pry) instead, especially in a Rails context.
+`irb` has gotten notably better in recent years. I was delighted to recently
+notice that earlier this year they landed delightful, colorful, and helpful
+improvement to the welcome prompt.
+
+It looks more or less like this:
+
+```
+❯ irb
+
+⢀⡴⠊⢉⡟⢿  IRB v1.18.0 - Ruby 3.4.4
+⣎⣀⣴⡋⡟⣻  "ls [object] -g pattern" to filter methods and properties
+⣟⣼⣱⣽⣟⣾  ~/dev/jbranchaud/pool-league-pro
+
+irb(main):001>
+```
+
+Notice it includes a random tip on the second line. I had no idea you could
+include `-g pattern` with an `ls`, so that will likely be landing as a new TIL
+soon.
+
+This improved welcome message has been available since `1.18.0` and originated
+in [this PR](https://github.com/ruby/irb/pull/1183).