Roll with Rake!!!

output of
rake -T

rake about # List versions of all Rails frameworks and the environment
rake db:create # Create the database from config/database.yml for the current Rails.env (use db:create:all to create all dbs in the config)
rake db:drop # Drops the database for the current Rails.env (use db:drop:all to drop all databases)
rake db:fixtures:load # Load fixtures into the current environment's database.
rake db:migrate # Migrate the database (options: VERSION=x, VERBOSE=false).
rake db:migrate:status # Display status of migrations
rake db:rollback # Rolls the schema back to the previous version (specify steps w/ STEP=n).
rake db:schema:dump # Create a db/schema.rb file that can be portably used against any DB supported by AR
rake db:schema:load # Load a schema.rb file into the database
rake db:seed # Load the seed data from db/seeds.rb
rake db:setup # Create the database, load the schema, and initialize with the seed data (use db:reset to also drop the db first)
rake db:structure:dump # Dump the database structure to an SQL file
rake db:version # Retrieves the current schema version number
rake doc:app # Generate docs for the app -- also availble doc:rails, doc:guides, doc:plugins (options: TEMPLATE=/rdoc-template.rb, TITLE="Custom Title")
rake log:clear # Truncates all *.log files in log/ to zero bytes
rake middleware # Prints out your Rack middleware stack
rake notes # Enumerate all annotations (use notes:optimize, :fixme, :todo for focus)
rake notes:custom # Enumerate a custom annotation, specify with ANNOTATION=CUSTOM
rake rails:template # Applies the template supplied by LOCATION=/path/to/template
rake rails:update # Update both configs and public/javascripts from Rails (or use just update:javascripts or update:configs)
rake routes # Print out all defined routes in match order, with names.
rake secret # Generate a cryptographically secure secret key (this is typically used to generate a secret for cookie sessions).
rake stats # Report code statistics (KLOCs, etc) from the application
rake test # Runs test:units, test:functionals, test:integration together (also available: test:benchmark, test:profile, test:plugins)
rake test:recent # Run tests for {:recent=>"test:prepare"} / Test recent changes
rake test:uncommitted # Run tests for {:uncommitted=>"test:prepare"} / Test changes since last checkin (only Subversion and Git)
rake time:zones:all # Displays all time zones, also available: time:zones:us, time:zones:local -- filter with OFFSET parameter, e.g., OFFSET=-6
rake tmp:clear # Clear session, cache, and socket files from tmp/ (narrow w/ tmp:sessions:clear, tmp:cache:clear, tmp:sockets:clear)
rake tmp:create # Creates tmp directories for sessions, cache, sockets, and pids

rails session info from console

To call helpers, use the helper …hmm… helper.

$ ./script/console
>> helper.number_to_currency('123.45')
=> "R$ 123,45"

If you want to use a helper that's not included by default (say, because you removed helper :all from ApplicationController), just include the helper.

>> include BogusHelper
>> helper.bogus
=> "bogus output"

As for dealing with controllers, I quote Nick's answer:

> app.get '/posts/1'
> response = app.response
# you now have a rails response object much like the integration tests

> response.body # get you the HTML
> response.cookies # hash of the cookies

# etc, etc