Vibe Coding: When It Works, When It Bites You

Vibe coding means roughly telling the AI what you want and refining as you go — fast, but risky if it fails.

What is vibe coding?

Vibe coding means working with an AI coding agent by loosely describing what you want, looking at the result, and iterating from there — instead of planning every line of code yourself upfront. The name comes from steering by "vibe" (feel) rather than a strict plan.

When it works well

Prototypes and throwaway scripts
Small, clearly scoped features
When you can easily check the result (it loads, it looks right, tests pass)
Quickly trying out ideas

When it bites you

For security-critical code (payments, auth, user data)
In large, tangled codebases where a small mistake spreads far
When nobody actually reviews the output
When you no longer understand the result because you never really looked

The golden rule

Vibe coding is fine for low-risk things you can verify quickly. The higher the risk (money, security, production systems), the more you need planning, tests, and review instead of pure gut feeling. A good middle ground: have the AI plan first (see Plan-First-Then-Code), then implement iteratively.