---
title: "Tip: Automatically annotate rails views"
author: "Yaroslav Shmarov"
date: "2021-11-16"
canonical_url: "https://blog.superails.com/annotate-views"
markdown_url: "https://blog.superails.com/annotate-views.md"
description: "PROBLEM: When your application grows, and your views become more complex, it can be hard to know where an element on an HTML page is rendered from."
tags: ["ruby","rails","ruby-on-rails","action-view","viewcomponent"]
license: "GNU AGPL v3. Credit Yaroslav Shmarov and link the canonical URL."
---

# Tip: Automatically annotate rails views

PROBLEM: When your application grows, and your views become more complex, it can be hard to know where an element on an HTML page is rendered from.

There's a simple solution!

![Automatically annotate rails views](https://blog.superails.com/assets/images/annotate-views.png)

Just add this line:

```diff
# config/environments/development.rb
  # Annotate rendered view with file names.
--  # config.action_view.annotate_rendered_view_with_filenames = true
++  config.action_view.annotate_rendered_view_with_filenames = true
```

Works for:
* templates
* partials
* ViewComponents !!!

Resources:
* [Github rails/rails PR](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/38848){:target="blank"}
* [Reddit discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/rails/comments/qtsaj4/adding_file_paths_to_every_view_in_rails_in_dev/){:target="blank"}