What Is Vibe Coding? How It Works, Where It Fits and Its Risks
Kamran Liaquat Ali- posted on
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Quick answer: Vibe coding means building software mainly by describing what you want to an AI model in plain language and accepting the code it generates, often without reading every line. The term was popularised by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy in early 2025. It is great for prototypes and personal tools, but production software still needs code review, testing and security checks.
How Vibe Coding Works
- You describe the goal: “Build a page that converts a CSV of expenses into a monthly chart.”
- An AI tool generates the code, often across several files.
- You run it, describe what is wrong (“the totals are off for March”), and let the AI fix it.
- You repeat until it works, focusing on behaviour rather than the code itself.
Tools range from chat assistants to AI-powered editors and agents that can run commands and edit whole projects. See our comparison of AI coding assistants.
Vibe Coding vs AI-Assisted Engineering
| Vibe coding | AI-assisted engineering | |
|---|---|---|
| Main goal | Get something working fast | Ship maintainable, secure software |
| Code review | Minimal | Every change is reviewed |
| Testing | Manual trying-out | Automated tests and CI |
| Who it suits | Prototypes, hobby projects, non-developers | Professional teams and production systems |
| Risk | Hidden bugs and security issues | Lower, because humans own the design |
Where Vibe Coding Works Well
- Quick prototypes to test an idea or show a client.
- Small internal tools and scripts with low risk.
- Learning: seeing working code for a concept you are studying.
- One-off data clean-ups and automation.
Where It Is Risky
- Anything that handles payments, personal data or authentication.
- Code that other people must maintain for years.
- Systems with strict performance or compliance requirements.
- Projects where nobody understands the generated code well enough to fix it at 2 a.m.
Common problems include hard-coded secrets, missing input validation, outdated or non-existent packages suggested by the AI, and duplicated logic that becomes hard to change.
A Safer Workflow
- Start with a short written spec: inputs, outputs and constraints.
- Ask the AI to explain its plan before it writes code.
- Work in small steps and commit to Git after each working change.
- Ask for tests alongside code and run them.
- Review security-sensitive parts yourself or with a colleague.
- Scan dependencies and never paste real credentials into prompts.
Is Vibe Coding the End of Programming?
No. It lowers the barrier to building simple software and speeds up experienced developers, but understanding architecture, data, security and trade-offs matters more, not less, when code is cheap to generate. Developers increasingly act as reviewers and designers of AI-written code, a shift explored in our article on how AI is changing jobs and our guide to agentic AI.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who coined the term vibe coding?
Andrej Karpathy, a co-founder of OpenAI and former Tesla AI director, described “vibe coding” in a post in February 2025.
Can beginners build apps with vibe coding?
Yes, simple ones. Learning the basics of programming makes it far easier to spot and fix the AI’s mistakes; our programming roadmap is a good place to start.
Is AI-generated code safe to use?
Only after review and testing. Treat it like code from an unknown contributor.
More in our technology and AI guide.
