An Active Record save traced from pending dirty state through validations, callbacks, persistence, and its transaction wrapper. It explains false returns with empty errors, validate: false, callback-chain inspection, successful no-op saves, and why a failed inner save can leave other work committed. RailsRevelry publishes one source-backed Rails mental model each week.

https://railsrevelry.substack.com/p/what-happens-when-you-call-save?utm_source=rubyflow&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=active_record_save