What Is Vibe Coding? A Plain Guide

Vibe coding means you describe to an AI in plain language what a program should do and accept the code it writes without reading it yourself. You only check whether the result works. For prototypes and small helpers that is a fast route; for anything involving customer data, payments or passwords, the check whether the code is also secure is missing.

I'm a developer, and I still haven't written a single line of code myself in a year and a half. My fourteen AI employees run on Claude Team, some also on open models or through the API. What I do is still not vibe coding, and I explain the difference further down. All AI basics are on my AI Basics page.

Where the term comes from

"Vibe" means mood or feeling. The AI researcher Andrej Karpathy coined the term in February 2025. He used it to describe "a new kind of coding" where you fully give in to the vibes and forget that the code even exists. Code is the text in a programming language that a program is made of.

Karpathy also described what that looked like for him: he always clicks "Accept All", no longer reads the changes and simply pastes error messages back into the chat. The code, he wrote, grows beyond what he can understand without reading it for a while. His own verdict: not too bad for throwaway weekend projects.

The term spread quickly. The British dictionary Collins chose "vibe coding" as its Word of the Year 2025 and describes it as the use of AI, prompted by natural language, to write computer code.

Vibe coding or programming with AI: the difference

Not all code an AI writes is vibe coding. The developer Simon Willison draws the line like this: vibe coding means building software with a language model without reviewing the code it writes. A language model is the program behind tools like ChatGPT or Claude that produces text, and code as well.

According to Willison, if you read, test and could explain the AI's code to someone else, you are no longer vibe coding, you are doing ordinary software development. The fact that an AI helps doesn't change that.

What you use for vibe coding

You don't need a special program for vibe coding. Three kinds of tools are common:

• AI chats with a preview: you describe in the chat what you want and see the result right next to it, such as a small calculator or a checklist.
• Website and app builders: you type a wish and get a finished page. Which ones exist and what to look for is in AI Website Generators Compared.
• Coding agents: an agent is an AI that creates files, runs commands and takes several steps in a row on its own. Claude Code is such a tool; it runs, for example, in the terminal, a text window for commands. I explain how to start in Claude Code: A Guide for Beginners. Which other agents exist is in Claude Code Alternatives in 2026.

What vibe coding is good for

Vibe coding is strong when a mistake does little harm. Willison advises beginners to ask before every project how much harm the code could cause if it has bugs or security holes. Good uses are therefore:

• Prototypes: you want to see whether an idea works before you spend money on a proper build.
• Small helpers just for you: a calculator, a form, an analysis of a spreadsheet without customer data.
• Learning: you see what code can do without first learning a programming language.

An example: a carpenter has the AI build a small tool that works out from width, height and board size how many boards she needs for a cupboard. She tries it with three old jobs whose result she knows. If it matches, she uses it. No sensitive data goes in, and if it ever gets something wrong, she notices when cutting. That is exactly the area vibe coding is meant for.

Where the risks are

• Security holes: the security vendor Veracode has been testing code from AI models regularly since 2025, by now from more than 100. According to its July 2026 report, the code almost always runs, but it fails the security tests in nearly 44 percent of cases when the instruction contains no security requirements. The models were tested on their own, without review by people or other tools.
• Secrets: passwords and API keys, the credentials a program uses to access an online service, must not end up in the code or the chat. Whether they do, you only see if you understand the code.
• Costs: Willison warns about services that charge by usage. A bug that calls a service thousands of times can get expensive. What an API is and how such calls work, I explain in What Is an API?.
• Maintenance: if nobody understands the code, nobody can repair or extend it later in a targeted way. Karpathy described exactly that himself.
• Responsibility: in its security documentation for Claude Code, Anthropic writes that you are responsible for reviewing proposed code and commands for safety before you approve them.

How I do it: let it be built, but have it reviewed

I don't write the code of my website myself either. Ralf builds it, Sebastian writes the posts and measures, and Falk hunts for the security gaps, with evidence and a fix for every finding. Whatever goes out, I approve myself. The rule behind it: whoever creates something does not correct it. That is the difference from vibe coding. I don't skip the review, I hand it to a second role that didn't write the code. What such a review looks like with Anthropic's tools is in Claude Code Review: Cost, Setup, Limits. How my roles are divided overall is in My AI Workforce: Fourteen Employees, One Boss.

What to watch out for

• Start small. A tool just for you, without real customer data.
• No credentials in the chat. Passwords and keys don't belong in the code or in the conversation with the AI.
• Set a spending limit when a paid service is involved.
• Limit what the AI may do. A coding agent should only be allowed to work in the folder that matters. How that works in Claude Code is in Claude Code Security: Permissions and Sandbox.
• Test with cases whose result you know. Like the carpenter with her old jobs.
• Have it checked before others use it. Willison recommends getting someone experienced to take a look before you share it.

Frequently asked questions

What does vibe coding mean?

Roughly "programming by feel". It means you tell the AI what you want and accept its code without reading it. Collins defines it as using AI, prompted by natural language, to write computer code.

Do I need programming skills for vibe coding?

Not for trying it out; that is the whole appeal. As soon as other people use your program or data is involved, you need someone who understands the code and can review it. That can be you, a professional or a second AI role with a clear review task.

Is vibe coding safe?

For a personal tool without sensitive data, the risk is small. For software with customer data, payments or logins it isn't, as long as nobody reviews the code. The Veracode report shows that AI code often fails security tests when the instruction contains no security requirements.

Can I build a website with vibe coding?

Yes, a simple page works. For your business website, building it isn't enough: legal notices, privacy, upkeep and security remain your job. The ways to build a site for free, and their limits, are in Build a Website for Free: The Real Ways.

Is vibe coding bad?

No, it's a tool for a particular purpose. Willison even writes that for beginners there's no better way to see what's possible with code. It turns bad when throwaway code suddenly processes customer data.

Where to go from here

Vibe coding often builds on other services. How programs talk to each other, I explain in What Is an API? If you don't want to build a program but improve a process, read what a workflow is. If you want to get going with Claude Code, the 15 Claude Code commands you need will help. The way into the tool itself is in Claude Code: A Guide for Beginners. How others build and review with AI is what we discuss in my German-speaking community Claude Practitioners.