Vibe Coding

"Vibe coding" was coined by Andrej Karpathy to describe a workflow where the developer describes intent at a high level and the AI agent handles implementation details.

What It Is

Instead of writing code line by line, you:

1. Describe what you want in natural language
2. The AI agent generates the implementation
3. You review, test, and iterate
4. You guide direction; the agent handles mechanics

When It Works Well

• Prototyping — get a working version fast, refine later
• Boilerplate — forms, CRUD, configuration files
• Unfamiliar frameworks — let the agent use its training data
• Repetitive patterns — similar components, similar routes

When It Doesn't Work

• Novel algorithms — the agent may hallucinate approaches
• Performance-critical code — needs human judgment on tradeoffs
• Security-sensitive code — always review auth, crypto, input validation manually
• Complex architecture decisions — the agent optimizes locally, not globally

Workflow Patterns

The Describe-Review Loop

You: "Add a paginated archive page at /archive with category filtering"
Agent: [generates page.tsx, updates queries, adds nav link]
You: [review diff, test in browser]
You: "The pagination offset is wrong — page 2 shows same results as page 1"
Agent: [fixes the offset calculation]

The Test-First Pattern

You: "Write tests for the keyword filter — cover Tier 1 matches, borderline cases, and rejections"
Agent: [generates 20 test cases]
You: "Now implement the filter to pass these tests"
Agent: [implements keyword-filter.ts]

The Scaffold-Then-Refine Pattern

You: "Create the full Stripe integration — checkout, webhooks, subscription helper"
Agent: [scaffolds all files]
You: [review each file, fix edge cases, add error handling]

Best Practices

• Write good CLAUDE.md / .cursorrules — the better your context, the better the vibe
• Review every diff — trust but verify
• Run tests frequently — catch regressions early
• Don't vibe on security — always hand-review auth, validation, and crypto
• Commit often — small commits make rollbacks easy