Ruby on Rails won’t vanish overnight. Thousands of monoliths power the backbone of global businesses, and Ruby’s and Rails’ expressive designs will always offer genuine joy to developers who care about the craft of programming.

But something did die on the keynote stage in Austin: the social contract between the framework and its creator. For years, developers looked the other way during DHH’s controversies because he remained the ultimate champion of developer ergonomics, craftsmanship, and the indie hacker’s right to build elegant software.

By taking the stage at Rails World to declare coding obsolete, dismiss Ruby as a relic, flaunt unreadable Rust generated by third-party black boxes, and label his own audience “losers” for caring about their craft, DHH finalized a break that had been brewing for years.

Rails may endure, but its original architect has officially left the building. It’s now up to the community to decide whether it continues to chain itself to an alienated founder, or finally gather the courage to build a post-DHH future.