GuidesTechnology
What is vibe coding
The term is Andrej Karpathy's, from February 2025, and it described a way of programming where you talk to the AI, accept what it writes and judge by the result rather than reading the code line by line. It became a category name within months.
Figures from September 6, 2026
What it means in practice
You describe what you want, look at what appeared, and ask for the next change. The code exists, keeps existing and is still real code; what changes is who writes it and where you evaluate it: on the screen, not in the file.
That is why "vibe" is not irony. The judgement is by observed behaviour, not by reading what was written.
What vibe coding is not
- it is not no-code. No-code swaps code for visual blocks. Here the code is still there, and on a platform that exports you can take it with you;
- it is not magic. The AI gets the structure right and frequently gets wrong the rules nobody stated;
- it is not only for prototypes. It becomes a prototype when nobody checks; what decides is not where the code came from, it is the care that follows it.
Where it works very well
- an internal tool for a small team, the one that is a spreadsheet today;
- a product's first version, to find out whether anybody uses it;
- tools for your own use, which would never get a budget;
- the second screen of an app that already exists, when the request is targeted.
Where it usually breaks
- who sees what. The most common failure and the most expensive, because it does not show on screen: the app works and it leaks;
- money. Amounts, tax, refunds and the payment left pending;
- the sad path. No connection, missing data, the same button pressed twice;
- growth. What serves ten people does not always serve a thousand, and that is where reading code stops being optional.
How to do it responsibly
- ask for little at a time, and always with who uses it and who sees what;
- after each change, sign in as an ordinary user and try to do what that user should not;
- test the sad path on purpose;
- publish early, to real people, and fix what they trip on;
- pick a tool that exports the code. It is the exit if the project grows past what conversation solves.
The summary
- the term is Karpathy's, February 2025, and it means judging by the result instead of reading the code;
- the code still exists: this is not no-code;
- it works very well for internal tools, first versions and personal tools;
- it breaks on permissions, money and the sad path, which is where checking belongs;
- exporting the code is what keeps the practice from becoming a trap.
Frequently asked questions
Is vibe coding the same as no-code?
No. No-code replaces code with visual blocks; vibe coding still produces code, only written by the AI from what you describe.
Do I need to know how to code to vibe code?
Not to start. Knowing helps a lot the moment something breaks in a way the description does not explain, and that is the difference between unblocking in minutes or in days.
Can an app built this way go to production?
It can, and plenty already have. What separates the app that holds from the one that does not are the usual things: permissions, data, errors, and somebody having looked.
Are there vibe coding courses?
There are plenty selling the term. The content that is worth anything is the usual: how to describe a product, how to test it and what to check before publishing.
Is vibe coding free?
The practice is. The tools have a free tier for building and charge when the app goes out into the world, which is where their own cost begins.