A new GitHub Action called setup-ruby-flash promises to dramatically accelerate Ruby environment setup in continuous integration workflows. Developed by the appraisal-rb team, it uses the rv tool for installation and ore for gem management, claiming to install Ruby in under two seconds and gems 50% faster than the standard ruby/setup-ruby action.

This project addresses a common pain point for Ruby developers: slow CI builds. By leveraging prebuilt binaries and an optimized gem installer, it aims to cut down on the time spent waiting for dependencies. It's designed as a near drop-in replacement for the established setup-ruby action, but with a focus on speed for supported platforms like Linux and macOS.

Currently, setup-ruby-flash supports Ruby versions 3.2 through 4.0, with plans for JRuby and TruffleRuby. The action also includes features like intelligent caching and security auditing via `ore audit`. For teams still relying on the older action, migrating requires just a few line changes in their workflow files, swapping out the action name and adding the `ore-install` flag.