The Speaking & Media
Robby Russell, on stage and on air.
Robby is the CEO of Planet Argon, the creator of Oh My Zsh, and the host of the Maintainable and On Rails podcasts. He speaks about keeping legacy software alive, sustaining open source projects, and what two decades of Ruby on Rails has taught him about building software that lasts.
Still: WeAreDevelopers, “Coffee with Developers”
- 20+ Years speaking
- 3 Continents spoken on
- 2 Podcasts hosted
- Millions Of Oh My Zsh users
About Robby
Robby Russell founded Planet Argon in Portland, Oregon in 2002 and has led the team ever since. Along the way he created Oh My Zsh, an open source framework used by developers around the world, and started the Maintainable podcast to talk with practitioners about the software they inherit.
He has been part of the Ruby on Rails community since 2005, and most of what he talks about comes from the same place: the unglamorous, deeply practical work of keeping software running.
I'm best known for a project I've kept alive since 2009. It's the same work our team at Planet Argon has been doing for other people's long-lived codebases the whole time.
Topics Robby speaks on
- Maintaining legacy software
- Ruby on Rails
- Open source sustainability
- Developer experience
- Running a consultancy
- Team leadership
Based in Portland, Oregon — available for in-person and remote events. Request his speaker kit →
Featured talks
A few recordings worth starting with.
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Watch “Prepare to Tack: Steering Rails Apps Out of Technical Debt”
Prepare to Tack: Steering Rails Apps Out of Technical Debt
Toronto, Canada · September 2024
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Watch “Oh My Zsh: 15 Years of CLI Innovation”
Oh My Zsh: 15 Years of CLI Innovation
Boston, USA · October 2024
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Watch “The Rails Features We Loved, Lost, and Laughed At”
The Rails Features We Loved, Lost, and Laughed At
Philadelphia, USA · 2025
Talks & panels
A selection of recent conference sessions and panels, newest first. Not a complete list.
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Keynote: The Most Valuable Engineer Isn't Shipping Features
Keynote at Rails World 2026, September 23 and 24.
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The Rails Features We Loved, Lost, and Laughed At
A tour through the Rails features that came, went, and left a mark.
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Ruby & Rails: A Chat with Maintainers
Robby moderates a conversation with the people maintaining Ruby and Rails.
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Oh My Zsh: 15 Years of CLI Innovation
Fifteen years of Oh My Zsh, its growth, and what it takes to keep it going.
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Prepare to Tack: Steering Rails Apps Out of Technical Debt
How teams change course on an application that has drifted, without a rewrite.
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Bringing Delight to the CLI
The story of how Oh My Zsh came to be, and what grew out of it.
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Rails Foundation AMA
An open question-and-answer session with the Rails Foundation.
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Rails Core AMA
Robby moderates an open session with members of the Rails Core team.
Podcasts
Robby hosts two shows and joins others as a guest.
Shows Robby hosts
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Host
Maintainable
Curious conversations about the art of software maintenance, with practitioners from across the software industry.
Listen to Maintainable → -
Host
On Rails
The Rails Foundation's podcast. Conversations with the teams running Rails in production, and with the people steering where the framework goes next.
Listen to On Rails →
Guest appearances
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ShopTalk
Where did Oh My Zsh Come From? And Using Rails in 2026
The origins of Oh My Zsh, and what building on Rails looks like now.
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freeCodeCamp
Why maintaining a codebase is so damn hard
Episode 207, on why maintenance work is harder than it looks.
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Scaling DevTools
Robby Russell on Oh My Zsh, Developer Experience, and Open Source
Episode 192, on developer tooling and sustaining an open source project.
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The Changelog
Oh My Zsh
Episode 61. He returned for episode 465.
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The Ruby on Rails Podcast
Rails World with Robby Russell
Episode 526. Also episodes 481, 332, 330, and 21.
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IndieRails
Robby Russell: Maintaining Planet Argon
Episode 17, on running a consultancy built around maintenance work.
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The Rails with Jason Podcast
Turning Around Legacy Projects
Episode 63, on taking over a project that has stalled.
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FLOSS Weekly
Oh My Zsh
Episode 411, on the project and its contributors.
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Developer Tea
Maintainability
A two-part conversation about what makes software maintainable.
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Dead Code
Tech Death
On what happens when software reaches the end of its life.
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Hanselminutes
Exploring Distributed Source Control with Git
Episode 108, one of his earliest podcast appearances.
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Maintainable
Turning the Mic Around with Kayla Reopelle
The one where the host of Maintainable becomes the guest.
Invite Robby to your event or show
Tell us about your audience and what you would like him to cover.