When you run rails generate model, Rails defaults to using a standard auto-incrementing integer for your primary keys. Your first user is ID: 1, your second is ID: 2, and so on.

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Auto-incrementing integer IDs in Rails expose business metrics and break down in distributed systems, while UUIDs are slow to index and ugly in URLs. Snowflake IDs — 64-bit integers encoding a timestamp, worker ID, and sequence number — offer a middle ground: globally unique, time-ordered, and as fast as a bigint in PostgreSQL. The post walks through implementing Snowflake IDs in Rails 8 using the `snowflake_id` gem, a reusable `HasSnowflakeId` concern with a `before_create` callback, and a migration that disables auto-increment in favor of a `bigint` primary key. Key caveats include returning large Snowflake IDs as strings in JSON APIs to avoid JavaScript precision loss.

Distributed Uniqueness: Implementing Twitter Snowflake IDs in Rails 8

STEP 2: Making it the Primary Key in Rails