What Is Vibe Coding? A New Way to Build Software with AI
Vibe coding is the practice of building software by describing intent to an AI agent instead of writing every line manually. Here is what it means, how it works, and why solo founders should pay attention.
The short version
Vibe coding is a software development approach where the programmer describes what they want to an AI coding agent and iterates through conversation, rather than writing every line of code by hand. The term was coined by Andrej Karpathy in early 2025. It caught on quickly because it gave a name to something thousands of developers were already doing.
In practice it looks like this: instead of opening a blank file and typing out an Express route, you tell the AI “create a REST endpoint that accepts CSV uploads, validates the headers against a schema, and inserts rows into SQLite.” The agent writes the code. You review it, adjust, run it, and move on. The cycle repeats dozens of times per hour.
What vibe coding is not
The term gets thrown around loosely, so it is worth being specific about what does not qualify.
It is not no-code. You still read code, you still debug, and you still make architectural decisions. The difference is that you are directing the work rather than typing every character. It is also not the same as pasting a question into ChatGPT and copying the response into your editor. That is using a chatbot. Vibe coding implies a continuous workflow where the AI has context about your entire codebase, not just the snippet you pasted.
And it is not autopilot. The developer remains the architect. The AI is the builder executing intent. If you stop paying attention, the output degrades rapidly.
How a typical session works
My workflow on a normal day follows a fairly consistent pattern. I open a terminal, point Claude Code at my project directory, and describe the feature or fix I need. The description includes whatever context matters (database schema, existing patterns, constraints). The agent generates code. I read it critically, not to admire it, but to catch wrong assumptions, missing edge cases, or poor abstractions.
Then comes the iteration. “This is close, but wrap the inserts in a transaction.” Or “extract that validation into its own module, I will reuse it.” The agent adjusts. I run tests, verify behavior, check the output against what I expected. If everything looks right, I commit. If not, another round.
The key tools that make this possible right now: Claude Code for terminal-based work with full codebase context, Cursor for visual file navigation with inline AI, and GitHub Copilot for autocomplete-style suggestions. Each fills a different gap.
Why it matters if you are building alone
Here is the thing about being a solo founder that people who have never done it tend to underestimate: the bottleneck is almost never knowledge. It is bandwidth. I know how to build a landing page. I know how to configure CI/CD. I know how to write database migrations and set up monitoring. The problem is doing all of it sequentially as one person, which is painfully slow.
Vibe coding does not make me smarter. What it does is make me faster at things I already know how to do. That distinction matters because it separates this from the “AI is replacing developers” narrative. It is not replacing me. It is compressing the time between having a plan and having working code.
Some rough numbers from my own projects over the last three months:
| Task | Before | With vibe coding | Speedup |
|---|---|---|---|
| New API endpoint | 2-3 hours | 20-30 min | 5x |
| Landing page from scratch | 4-6 hours | 1-2 hours | 3x |
| Database migration with tests | 1-2 hours | 15-20 min | 5x |
| Investigating a bug | Varies | Varies | Roughly 2x |
The multiplier tends to be highest for tasks where the pattern is well-understood but the actual typing is tedious. Novel architecture decisions, on the other hand, still require human judgment. The AI can help explore options, but the decision is yours.
The downsides nobody wants to talk about
Debugging AI-generated code is genuinely harder than debugging code you wrote yourself. You did not build the mental model line by line, so when something breaks in a subtle way, you have less intuition about where to look. I have learned to compensate by reading generated code more carefully before committing, but it adds friction.
There is also a real risk for less experienced developers. If you never struggle with a problem, you never truly internalize the pattern. Juniors who rely too heavily on vibe coding may ship faster in the short term while building a weaker foundation. I would not recommend this approach to someone who has not spent at least a few years writing code the traditional way.
Context limits remain a practical constraint as well. Large codebases with hundreds of files still confuse AI agents, though this is improving month over month. For smaller projects (which is what most solo founders work on), it is less of an issue.
Who benefits most
Vibe coding works best for experienced developers who can evaluate AI output critically. If you can look at generated code and spot a wrong abstraction, a missing null check, or a potential injection vector, you will get enormous value from this workflow. If you cannot, you will ship bugs faster than before.
The sweet spot is a developer with 5+ years of experience who is building something new. You have the judgment. The AI has the speed. The combination is genuinely powerful.
Where this is heading
The tools are improving faster than most people realize. Six months ago, AI agents struggled with multi-file refactors. Today they handle them routinely. A year from now, the gap between a solo founder with good AI tooling and a small funded team will be even narrower.
This is not a fad and it is not going away. The developers who learn to work effectively with AI agents will have a significant advantage over those who do not. That is true regardless of whether you are a solo founder, a startup CTO, or an engineer at a large company.
I vibe code daily while building multiple SaaS products as a solo founder. The unfiltered process is on X.