Vibecoder

What’s vibe coding?

In February 2025, AI researcher Andrej Karpathy named the moment software development threw away the map and began driving by mood. Tell a language model what you want. Accept the changes. Run them. Feed the screams back into the machine. Repeat until the screen does something attractive or the weekend files for asylum.

This is not the same as using AI while conscious. If you review, test and understand the generated code, Simon Willison argues that you are still practising software development; the machine is merely doing some typing. Vibe coding begins when comprehension slips quietly out of the building while confidence remains behind to chair the meeting.

For sketches, experiments and toys designed to die young, it can be magnificent. Speed matters. Play matters. Then somebody attaches customers, private data, rent money or medical records, and the conjuring trick becomes infrastructure. At that point stop admiring the rabbit and locate the person who knows what was inside the hat.

Evidence: The original vibe coding post, Andrej Karpathy, Not all AI-assisted programming is vibe coding, Simon Willison