What is vibe coding, really?
A useful way to build faster. A terrible excuse to skip engineering.
Start with the outcome
Vibe coding is a conversational way to build software: describe what you want, let an AI model propose an implementation, then iterate on the result. At Dudes, we use the term for a workflow where writing code stops being the main bottleneck.
The important question is what happens after the first output. A convincing screen does not tell you whether permissions are correct or whether a failed payment leaves the database in a sensible state.
Keep the changes small
We give a coding agent a bounded task, relevant context and observable acceptance criteria. “Build our whole customer portal” leaves too much room for assumptions. “Let a signed-in customer view only their own invoices” is a task we can inspect and test.
Small changes also make failures easier to isolate. When a check fails, we can identify which assumption changed instead of debugging a whole generated application at once.
The prototype is a question
A prototype helps answer whether an idea is worth pursuing. It can use synthetic data and a deliberately narrow path. Before release, that shortcut needs to be revisited: authentication, data integrity, monitoring and recovery all matter.
Our rule is simple: generated is not done; verified is done. Read more about our approach to vibe coding and the release checks behind it.