... version 2.x or below, read the rspec-rails upgrade notes to find out what to watch out for. In RSpec, assertions are called expectations, and every expectation is built around a matcher. When you expect(a).to eq(b), you’re using the eq matcher. RSpec Rails defines ten different types of specs for testing different parts of a typical Rails application. Each one inherits from one of Rails’ built-in TestCase classes, meaning the helper methods provided by default in Rails tests are available.