Let’s load and enable the view framework: $ rails console Loading local environment (Rails 3.0.3) >> require 'hirb' => true >> Hirb.enable => nil The default configuration provides table views for ActiveRecord::Base descendants. If a class isn’t configured, Hirb reverts to irb’s default echo mode. >> Hirb::Formatter.dynamic_config['ActiveRecord::Base'] => {:class=>Hirb::Helpers::AutoTable, :ancest