Coder Radio 639: RubyLLM with Carmine Paolino
Jan 21, 2026
Carmine Paolino, an author and developer with a focus on Ruby-based AI tooling, discusses his journey from rejecting PHP to embracing Ruby in 2009. He shares insights on building Chat With Work, highlighting its chat interface and workplace integrations. Carmine explains why he created RubyLLM, emphasizing its simplicity and unique features like provider adapters that allow switching models mid-conversation. He also reflects on Ruby’s developer ergonomics and shares his enthusiasm for a 3D printer and Codex CLI as essential tools.
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Journey From Batch Scripts To Ruby LLM
- Carmine Paolino described starting with batch scripts, studying CS, discovering Ruby in 2009, and later doing a master's in AI.
- He worked as an ML scientist, founded a Python AI startup for supermarkets, then returned to Ruby to build Chat With Work.
Product Led To Library Extraction
- Chat With Work is an AI assistant for workplaces that lets you chat with your documents using connectors like Google Drive.
- RubyLM was extracted from that project to provide a Ruby-first library matching Carmine's preferences.
APIs Should Hide Provider Complexity
- RubyLM hides provider and model details so developers focus on prompts and chat flow.
- The API emphasizes simple Ruby objects and a minimal chat interface like ruby_lm.chat and chat.ask.