When to set `inverse_of` in Rails AR

Rails ActiveRecord does not auto infer bi-directional associations if some of the associations contains a scope or any of the following through or foreign_key options.

class Author < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :books
end

class Book < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :writer, class_name: 'Author', foreign_key: 'author_id'
end

irb> a = Author.first
irb> b = a.books.first
irb> a.first_name = 'David'
irb> a.id = b.writer.id
=> true
irb> a.object_id = b.writer.object_id
=> false
irb> a.first_name == b.writer.first_name
=> false

To solve this issue we should use inverse_of option, check this out:

class Author < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :books, inverse_of: 'writer'
end

class Book < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :writer, class_name: 'Author', foreign_key: 'author_id'
end

irb> a = Author.first
irb> b = a.books.first
irb> a.first_name = 'David'
irb> a.id = b.writer.id
=> true
irb> a.object_id = b.writer.object_id
=> true
irb> a.first_name == b.writer.first_name
=> true