The `rspec` command comes with several options you can use to customize RSpec's behavior, including output formats, filtering examples, etc. For a full list of options, run the `rspec` command with the `--help` flag: $ rspec --help ### Run with `ruby` Generally, life is simpler if you just use the `rspec` command. If you must use the `ruby` command, however, you'll want to do the following: * `require 'rspec/autorun'` This tells RSpec to run your examples. Do this in any file that you are passing to the `ruby` command. * Update the `LOAD_PATH` It is conventional to put configuration in and require assorted support files from `spec/spec_helper.rb`. It is also conventional to require that file from the spec files using `require 'spec_helper'`. This works because RSpec implicitly adds the `spec` directory to the `LOAD_PATH`. It also adds `lib`, so your implementation files will be on the `LOAD_PATH` as well. If you're using the `ruby` command, you'll need to do this yourself: ruby -Ilib -Ispec path/to/spec.rb