A small function for your shell to grep from you running rails server to get the routes. Which is way faster than having to load the environment first using rake routes.

grep_local_rails_routes.sh

# requirements:
#  - currently running rails server
#  - gem 'sextant' bundled in your Gemfile
#
# Add this to your .zshrc or .bashrc
# or put it in a separate file and include it like this
# source ~/scripts/grep_local_rails_routes.sh
#
# You can use it like this 
# %:  routes
# Or grep for something
# %:  routes posts  

function routes {
  curl -s http://localhost:3000/rails/routes | grep ${1:-''}
}