What's the Difference Between `Irb`, `Bundle Exec Irb`, `Bundle Console`, and `Rails Console`? There are a lot of ways to launch a Ruby or Rails console: irb, bundle exec irb, bundle console, and rails console are some of the most common. They seem similar, but they each work a little bit differently. If you don’t know what those differences are, you’ll have some problems. Maybe you won’t be able