Stripe-Style IDs in Rails: A Guide to the make_id Gem

If you have ever used the Stripe API, you’ve noticed their IDs look awesome. Instead of a random number or a long, confusing UUID, they look like this: cus_M1p7abc123 or ch_3Oixyz456.

These are called Prefixed IDs. They are great for two reasons:

1. Context: When you see inv_... in your logs, you immediately know it’s an Invoice without looking at the table name.
2. Security: It hides your business volume. Hackers can't guess that your next user is ID 501.

In the past, setting this up in Rails required a lot of custom code in your models. But recently, I found a gem that makes this process incredibly simple: make_id (built by Mike Perham, the creator of Sidekiq).

Here is how to implement professional, Stripe-style IDs in your Rails 8 app in 4 steps.

STEP 1: Install the Gem

Add the gem to your Gemfile:

gem "make_id"

Run bundle install in your terminal.

STEP 2: The Migration

Just like with ULIDs or Snowflake IDs, we need to tell the database that our primary key is a string and not an integer.

rails g model Project name:string

Open the migration file and disable the automatic ID:

# db/migrate/XXXXXXXXXXXXXX_create_projects.rb
class CreateProjects < ActiveRecord::Migration[8.0]
  def change
    create_table :projects, id: false do |t|
      # We use string for the prefixed ID
      t.string :id, primary_key: true
      t.string :name
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

STEP 3: Configure the Model

This is where the gem shines. You just use the make_id macro. You tell it what prefix you want to use, and it handles the rest.

# app/models/project.rb
class Project < ApplicationRecord
  # This tells the gem to generate an ID starting with 'prj_'
  make_id :prj
end

By default, the gem uses a secure, random string (NanoID) after the prefix.

STEP 4: Seeing it in Action

Open your Rails console (bin/rails c) and create a project:

project = Project.create(name: "Cloud Empire")

puts project.id
# => "prj_7k2n9zp1m5r8"

It looks professional, it’s easy to read in your logs, and it’s perfectly unique.

Advanced: Customizing your IDs

The make_id gem is very flexible. You can change the length of the random part if you have a massive amount of data and want to avoid collisions.

class User < ApplicationRecord
  # Use a 3-letter prefix and a longer 20-character random string
  make_id :usr, length: 20
end

Why I prefer this over UUIDs?

I love UUIDs for their uniqueness, but I hate how they look in URLs.
/users/550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 is ugly and hard to double-click and copy.

/users/usr_7k2n9zp1m5r8 is clean, tells me exactly what the object is, and fits perfectly in a mobile app UI or a support email.

Summary

The make_id gem is a "Quality of Life" improvement for Rails developers. It takes an enterprise-level feature (Prefixed IDs) and turns it into a one-line setup.

1. Install the gem.
2. Set your primary key to string.
3. Add make_id :prefix to your model.

It’s a tiny change that makes your Rails monolith feel significantly more polished and "pro."