I used to play a ton of video games as a kid. The first one I ever played was Prince of Persia, the old side scroller where your character jumped around, avoided traps, and fought enemies.
With Gemini 2.5 Pro and the Canvas feature, I tried to build a basic version of that, but with ninjas instead. I didn’t write the code. I just asked Gemini to write it and render it on the Canvas so I could play.
It took just a couple of minutes for me to get a functioning game.
Welcome to the world of vibe coding.
Wait, What Is Vibe Coding?
Coined (and vibe-validated) by Andrej Karpathy, vibe coding is the new frontier where you build software by telling an AI what you want and letting it spit out the code. That’s it. It’s coding via vibes, intuition, and language, not by writing loops and sweating over syntax.
You say, “Build me a web app with a sidebar, a dashboard, and a button that emails the user a pizza emoji every Friday,” and boom, the AI does it.
You don’t need to know if it’s React or Vue under the hood. You’re not writing the code. You’re describing the vibe of what you want, like a product manager with a vision board and zero interest in semicolons. Minimalist? Maximalist? Dashboardy? Retro Terminal-chic? The AI’s got you.
How Is This Different From Traditional Coding?
Great question. Here’s the breakdown:
| Traditional Coding | Vibe Coding |
|---|---|
| You write every line yourself | You describe what you want |
| You debug manually | You copy-paste errors into ChatGPT and ask it to fix them |
| You understand the codebase deeply | You trust the AI knows what it’s doing (ish) |
| Takes weeks | Takes hours (sometimes minutes) |
| Requires years of practice | Requires good communication skills |
| You battle bugs like it’s Elden Ring | You treat bugs like an annoying roommate the AI has to evict |
It’s the difference between hand-crafting a table and describing the table to a carpenter who builds it for you instantly. And that carpenter never sleeps or judges your terrible wireframes.
It’s not just about speed, it’s a different mindset. Less “I must master the syntax gods” and more “I’m conducting an orchestra of AI agents to get this landing page live by dinner.”
Real-World Use Cases (Or, Who’s Actually Doing This?)
This isn’t just a cool party trick. Startups in the Y Combinator Winter 2025 batch built their products with 95% AI-generated code. Y Combinator’s CEO Garry Tan straight up called it “the age of vibe coding“.
Even Karpathy himself was building apps this way, casually telling his AI assistant things like “decrease the sidebar padding” and never even looking at the diff. That’s next-level delegation.
Kevin Roose at the NYT built apps like “Lunchbox Buddy” to suggest what to pack for lunch using vibe coding. It wasn’t production-grade code, but it worked. Ish. Kinda. The reviews were AI-generated too, but hey, it’s the vibe that counts.
With vibe coding you can whip together MVPs in a weekend using nothing but ChatGPT and Replit. Think simple SaaS dashboards, internal automations, and basic CRUD apps. One guy even built an AI therapist chatbot, and no, I don’t want to know what advice it gave.
How To Vibe Code (Without Losing Your Mind)
Here’s your crash course in coding by vibe:
1. Pick Your Tools
You’ll need a core toolkit to begin your vibe coding journey. Here are the categories and recommended options:
AI Coding Assistants & IDE Integration
These tools integrate AI directly into your development environment:
- ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini: For raw natural language prompts.
- Cursor / Windsurf: A dev environment made for AI collaboration.
- GitHub Copilot – AI assistant integrated with popular IDEs
- Continue – VS Code extension with chat and agent modes
One-Shot App Generators
These platforms can generate entire applications from prompts:
- Lovable – Generates full-stack web applications from text prompts
- Bolt – Creates full applications with database integration
- Replit – Provides interactive development with AI planning
AI Design Tools
For quickly creating user interfaces:
- Uizard – Generates UI designs from text descriptions or sketches
- Visily – Transforms prompts into high-fidelity mockups
Version Control & Debugging
Essential safety nets:
- Git/GitHub – Version control to track changes and revert when needed
- Browser dev tools – For identifying and fixing frontend issues
Pick the one that feels right. You’re vibe coding, after all.
2. Start With a Prompt
Describe what you want. Be detailed. Channel your inner poet if you must.
Bad: “Make an app.”
Better: “Create a web app with a dashboard that shows user analytics pulled from a dummy dataset. Include dark mode and responsive design.”
Best: “Build a web app that visualizes monthly active users, supports CSV upload, and auto-generates line graphs. Make the layout mobile-friendly and use React and Tailwind CSS.”
3. Iterate Like a Mad Scientist
Run the code. Something will break. That’s fine. Copy-paste the error and say, “Fix this.”
Add features like you’re ordering drinks:
“Add a search bar.” “Now make it filter results by date.” “Throw in dark mode, because I’m edgy.” “Replace the font with something more ‘Silicon Valley VC deck.’”
You are in control. Kinda.
4. Debug by Vibes
Don’t panic when things go sideways. Vibe coders rarely understand 100% of the code. You prompt. You observe. You adjust. You learn to speak fluent “AI whisperer.”
Sometimes the bug isn’t even a bug, it’s just the AI being weird. Restart the conversation. Ask again. Split the task in two. And yes, sometimes, just nod, smile, and delete the whole thing.
5. Trust, But Verify
Use the code. Check if it does what you asked. If not, try a new prompt. Don’t ship blind. Run the thing. Poke the buttons. Make sure it doesn’t accidentally send emails to all your users at 3AM.
When Should You Use Vibe Coding?
Vibe coding is killer for:
- Prototypes
- MVPs
- Internal tools
- Weekend hacks
- Landing pages
- Micro SaaS apps
- Automating boring stuff
It’s… less great for:
- Mission-critical software
- Anything where security matters
- Projects where uptime is non-negotiable
- Enterprise-grade platforms
- Compliance-heavy sectors (finance, healthcare, etc.)
Think of vibe coding as your turbo-charged idea launcher. Not the place you want your bank’s backend running.
Best Practices
- Break problems down. Don’t ask for the moon in one prompt.
- Be specific. The AI isn’t psychic.
- Review the output. Always.
- Learn some code basics. Enough to smell BS.
- Treat AI like a junior dev. Helpful, fast, but occasionally clueless.
- Keep a changelog. AI will change stuff without asking. Track it.
- Prompt iteratively. Layer on complexity instead of all at once.
- Always test. Just because the AI says it’s working doesn’t mean it is.
Bonus tip: Give your AI assistant a name. Makes it feel like pair programming instead of existential dread.
Resources and Further Reading
Learning Resources
- Prompt Engineering Guide – Techniques for effective AI prompting
- PatrickJS Rules Library – Helpful rules for Cursor
- Vibe Coding Course on Replit – Interactive tutorials
Deployment Platforms
- Vercel – Frontend deployment made simple
- Netlify – Fast deployment for frontend applications
- Supabase – Open-source Firebase alternative
Additional Reading
Final Thoughts: Coding, But Make It Chaotic Good
Vibe coding isn’t about replacing developers. It’s about supercharging creativity. It’s building apps with the same energy you bring to a whiteboard brainstorm or a half-baked startup idea over drinks.
We’re entering an era where the best software won’t come from the best coders, it’ll come from the best communicators. The ones who can talk to AI, shape ideas into prompts, and vibe their way to a working product.
The best vibe coders are part developer, part writer, part UX designer, and part chaos gremlin. They don’t see blank screens… They see possibility.
So grab your chai latte, fire up ChatGPT, and start building. No IDE required. No gatekeepers in sight. No permission needed.
Let the vibes code for you.
And hey, if it crashes? That’s just the AI trying to teach you patience.
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