What is Rails scaffolding?

Scaffolding (rails generate scaffold ModelName field:type ...) generates a complete CRUD stack in one command: the model, migration, controller with all 7 RESTful actions, views (index, show, new, edit, _form partial), routes (resources :model_names), and tests. It is useful for prototyping and learning Rails conventions, but generated code is often too generic for production — most developers use it as a starting point and customize from there. For APIs, rails generate scaffold --api generates controllers without views.