Software development is changing with the rise of large language models. Instead of writing every line by hand, developers now guide AI through prompts and feedback. This shift—known as vibe coding—reshapes programming into a more conversational, intuitive, and collaborative process.
“Vibe coding” is a new way of thinking about software development in the age of large language models (LLMs). Popularized by Andrej Karpathy in early 2025, the term captures a shift in the programmer’s role—from writing code line by line, to expressing intentions in natural language and collaborating with AI systems to bring those intentions to life. It’s a style of programming where you describe what you want, feel out whether the AI’s response is in the right direction, and keep iterating until the vibe is right.
In traditional programming, developers write code by hand, translating ideas into precise syntax and logic. Vibe coding, by contrast, begins with a prompt—”Build me a simple calendar app,” or “Write a script that renames all files in a folder based on date.” The AI generates a draft of the code, and the human developer becomes a curator, guide, and editor. They review the output, tweak it, add constraints, and test until the result feels aligned with their goals.
This mode of working brings a different rhythm to coding. It’s less about syntax and more about steering—less about rote knowledge and more about judgment, intuition, and iteration. The developer still needs technical skill, especially to validate and refine the code, but the focus shifts to high-level design, debugging, testing, and knowing how to ask the right questions. Vibe coding makes programming more conversational, and potentially more accessible.
That accessibility is part of the excitement. Vibe coding opens up software creation to a broader group of people—those who understand what they want but haven’t traditionally been able to build it themselves. Writers, designers, educators, and analysts can begin to create custom tools and workflows with the help of AI. It’s democratizing, but it also demands new literacies: how to prompt well, how to verify AI output, and how to collaborate with a system that doesn’t always know what it’s doing.
Critics may argue that this style encourages sloppy thinking or dependency on models that aren’t always accurate. Those concerns are valid—but they also echo past transitions in programming, like the move from assembly to higher-level languages, or from command line to graphical interfaces. Each leap in abstraction comes with trade-offs, but also with new creative possibilities.
At its core, vibe coding is a recognition that programming is changing—not just how we write software, but how we think about the act of creating it. It introduces a more fluid, responsive, and exploratory way of building—one where we guide the machine with a sense of direction, iterate until things feel right, and trust that sometimes, when the code runs and the output sings, we’ve found the vibe.
To work well with vibe coding, practice giving clear prompts and reviewing AI output with care. Focus on refining ideas, testing results, and learning how the model responds. The more you engage with the process, the better your outcomes. Start small, stay curious, and build from there.
Resources
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/nishatalagala/2025/03/30/what-is-vibe-coding-and-why-should-you-care/
- Code by Conversation
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