prototype-rails provides Prototype, Scriptaculous, and RJS for Rails 3.1. Prototype and Scriptaculous are provided via the asset pipeline and you do *not* need to copy their files into your application. Rails will get them from prototype-rails automatically. You may want to add them to your app/assets/javascripts/application.js: //= require prototype //= require prototype_ujs //= require effects //= require dragdrop //= require controls New applications using this may also want to add config.action_view.debug_rjs = true to their config/environments/development.rb.