diff --git a/ruby_on_rails/template.rb b/ruby_on_rails/template.rb
index cb05bab5..786ffeb8 100644
--- a/ruby_on_rails/template.rb
+++ b/ruby_on_rails/template.rb
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@
   RUBY
 end
 
+# remove the block unless ARGV.include?("--skip-server"). We don't want to start the server directly during setup.
+gsub_file "bin/setup", /\n{0,2}[ \t]*unless ARGV.include\?\("--skip-server"\).*?end/m, ""
+
 # add "ruby file: ".ruby-version" to the Gemfile under the line starting with "source"
 insert_into_file "Gemfile", after: /^source.*\n/ do
   <<~RUBY