BUNDLE-CONSOLE(1)

💅 BUNDLE-CONSOLE(1)

okay bestie, welcome to the bundle-console page from the General Commands Manual — yes that's the one, the Bundler-family manual ✨

---

🎀 NAME

bundle-console — open an IRB session with the bundle pre-loaded, no cap 🫶

---

✨ SYNOPSIS

bundle console [GROUP]

---

💖 DESCRIPTION

So what this does is: it starts up an interactive Ruby console session, but like… in the context of your current bundle. Your gems are already there. It's giving main character energy for your Gemfile, fr fr 🌸

If you don't pass a GROUP at all, then every gem chilling in the default group in Gemfile(5) gets preliminarily loaded. That's it. That's the whole deal ✨

(Gemfile(5) lives over at https://bundler.io/man/gemfile.5.html if you wanna go read it, iykyk.)

Now, if you do pass a GROUP, then it loads all the gems in that group plus the gems in the default group. Both. Together. Slay 💅

and here's the chaotic bit — even if the group you named doesn't actually exist in your Gemfile, the IRB console just… starts. No warning. No error. Nothing. It does not care. 💀

You can change which shell it uses with the environment variable BUNDLE_CONSOLE, or with bundle config set console. The options are:

• irb — the default, the classic, the icon 👑
• pry — https://github.com/pry/pry
• ripl — https://github.com/cldwalker/ripl

So like, bundle console uses irb by default, but you can absolutely swap in Pry or Ripl with bundle console by adjusting the console Bundler setting. 🦋

⚠️ also make sure that pry or ripl is actually in your Gemfile, bestie. Otherwise things get awkward 😭

---

🔥 EXAMPLE

$ bundle config set console pry
$ bundle console
Resolving dependencies...
[1] pry(main)>

look at that prompt. pry(main). iconic. 🎀

---

🧚 SEE ALSO

Gemfile(5) — https://bundler.io/man/gemfile.5.html ⭐

---

and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 this one's from the General Commands Manual, dated April 2026 — go forth and console, you absolute legend 🌈🫶