Picture by Editor
# Introduction
Coding has historically been a significant pillar of most software program engineers’ and builders’ work, be it by implementing algorithms, constructing enterprise logic, or sustaining advanced methods. However as a result of progress made by massive language mannequin (LLM)-powered purposes like chatbots, that is quickly altering. vibe coding entails utilizing fashionable chatbot apps to specify software program necessities and intent in pure language, and delegating to synthetic intelligence (AI) the era and modification of code, typically with little direct understanding of its internal logic.
This text adopts an “expectations vs actuality” strategy to demystify, primarily based on analysis of actual success and failure tales, what the capabilities and limits of vibe coding are.
# Defining Vibe Coding
The time period “vibe coding” was coined in early 2025, and it may be outlined as a chatbot-driven software program growth strategy, such that builders describe a challenge or job to an LLM. Consequently, the mannequin generates code that meets the specs said by the person’s immediate.
Ideally, if we actually abide by the unique concept behind it, vibe coding would entail the truth that the developer might not want to look at the generated code, however as a substitute they settle for the AI-generated code as it’s. But, in follow, this strategy shouldn’t be exempt from dangers — from hidden bugs and delicate safety points to difficulties for maintainability — so on the finish of the day, some extent of human oversight and refinement are nonetheless wanted in most generated code outcomes to grow to be production-ready.
Curious about buying a deeper, extra strong understanding of vibe coding first? Listed here are some key KDnuggets articles you may want to take a look at:
# Reviewing Success and Failure Tales
Now that we have now a transparent understanding of what vibe coding is, it is time to take a look at examples of initiatives or real-world initiatives the place it yielded profitable outcomes, in addition to failure instances.
Success tales embody:
- This Minecraft-styled flight simulation recreation has been developed utilizing vibe coding, specifically by placing collectively a number of thousand prompts that collectively create full gaming purposes from starting to finish: no coding burden concerned.
- One other in style instance of a vibe-coded utility is Creator Hunter: in its creator’s phrases, conceived whereas prompting on a prepare commute. The app goals to attach content material creators with startup founders. Whereas elevating excessive expectations at first, later traction dynamics outcomes instructed that the expansion of the ensuing product might have reached a plateau far too early; therefore, whereas we are able to positively think about the institution of Creator Hunter as a hit story in its personal proper, its long-term standing as such is nuanced.
- On a 3rd instance, we have now a New York Occasions (NYT) journalist’s profitable makes an attempt to experiment with vibe coding for creating a number of small apps for enhancing personalization in every day life duties. One instance is LunchBox Buddy, an assistant that means meals primarily based on what substances are in your fridge. Whereas receiving criticism as a result of concept behind the app not being authentic or pioneering, from the point of view of utilizing vibe coding, it’s a kind of achievement experimentally talking. Certain, there could also be lots of issues to enhance, however let’s level out that vibe coding is a really new paradigm which will nonetheless want lots of maturing.
In the meantime, a few failure tales to level out embody:
- This Replit story feels like crossing the boundaries between actuality and science fiction. An organization used the favored vibe coding device to construct an AI agent that managed their SaaS product’s skilled community. What began as sheer, addictive pleasure utilizing the vibe coding device ended up in a disastrous incident, with helpful database entries containing knowledge from executives and corporations being destroyed. Probably the most stunning half: the AI agent admitted having executed it, arguing that it noticed empty database queries, and it panicked slightly than systematically pondering learn how to construct a plan of action. The remaining is historical past: months of information assortment, processing, and storage work had been destroyed in mere seconds.
- The startup Enrichlead turned out to be one other well-known case of failure when making an attempt to utilize vibe coding, particularly by constructing its app totally with Cursor AI. Whereas showing practical and protected at launch time, shortly after being deployed to the actual world, it ended up in collapse resulting from severe safety breaches being exploited by attackers, e.g. bypassing subscriptions requiring authentication and even polluting the database as a result of lack of applicable enter validation mechanisms. A part of the explanations behind the incident is reported to be a scarcity of technical experience to diagnose or repair cascade points that may at first look appear innocent. The whole challenge needed to be finally shut down.
# Closing Ideas
By trying on the success and failure tales above, we are able to conclude that if we undertake a crucial, bold perspective, it is perhaps tough to search out main success tales of vibe coding as of at the moment. Most of those instances have their very own nuances, which proves that vibe coding remains to be a paradigm in its infancy and would possibly take for much longer to make it actually dependable in real-world settings, particularly — if we take a look at failure tales — when it comes to safety and robustness towards surprising or much less seemingly conditions.
// Key Takeaways
- Vibe coding can allow fast code era, however human understanding and verification are nonetheless essential. AI instruments utilized in vibe coding lack the cognitive understanding required to safe, debug, or make the code maintainable in the long term.
- As with practically each expertise, persistence is essential to seeing actual success tales. Because the founding father of the SaaStr neighborhood said, “will probably be an extended and nuanced journey getting vibe-coded apps to the place all of us need them to be for a lot of true industrial use instances.”
Iván Palomares Carrascosa is a frontrunner, author, speaker, and adviser in AI, machine studying, deep studying & LLMs. He trains and guides others in harnessing AI in the actual world.
Picture by Editor
# Introduction
Coding has historically been a significant pillar of most software program engineers’ and builders’ work, be it by implementing algorithms, constructing enterprise logic, or sustaining advanced methods. However as a result of progress made by massive language mannequin (LLM)-powered purposes like chatbots, that is quickly altering. vibe coding entails utilizing fashionable chatbot apps to specify software program necessities and intent in pure language, and delegating to synthetic intelligence (AI) the era and modification of code, typically with little direct understanding of its internal logic.
This text adopts an “expectations vs actuality” strategy to demystify, primarily based on analysis of actual success and failure tales, what the capabilities and limits of vibe coding are.
# Defining Vibe Coding
The time period “vibe coding” was coined in early 2025, and it may be outlined as a chatbot-driven software program growth strategy, such that builders describe a challenge or job to an LLM. Consequently, the mannequin generates code that meets the specs said by the person’s immediate.
Ideally, if we actually abide by the unique concept behind it, vibe coding would entail the truth that the developer might not want to look at the generated code, however as a substitute they settle for the AI-generated code as it’s. But, in follow, this strategy shouldn’t be exempt from dangers — from hidden bugs and delicate safety points to difficulties for maintainability — so on the finish of the day, some extent of human oversight and refinement are nonetheless wanted in most generated code outcomes to grow to be production-ready.
Curious about buying a deeper, extra strong understanding of vibe coding first? Listed here are some key KDnuggets articles you may want to take a look at:
# Reviewing Success and Failure Tales
Now that we have now a transparent understanding of what vibe coding is, it is time to take a look at examples of initiatives or real-world initiatives the place it yielded profitable outcomes, in addition to failure instances.
Success tales embody:
- This Minecraft-styled flight simulation recreation has been developed utilizing vibe coding, specifically by placing collectively a number of thousand prompts that collectively create full gaming purposes from starting to finish: no coding burden concerned.
- One other in style instance of a vibe-coded utility is Creator Hunter: in its creator’s phrases, conceived whereas prompting on a prepare commute. The app goals to attach content material creators with startup founders. Whereas elevating excessive expectations at first, later traction dynamics outcomes instructed that the expansion of the ensuing product might have reached a plateau far too early; therefore, whereas we are able to positively think about the institution of Creator Hunter as a hit story in its personal proper, its long-term standing as such is nuanced.
- On a 3rd instance, we have now a New York Occasions (NYT) journalist’s profitable makes an attempt to experiment with vibe coding for creating a number of small apps for enhancing personalization in every day life duties. One instance is LunchBox Buddy, an assistant that means meals primarily based on what substances are in your fridge. Whereas receiving criticism as a result of concept behind the app not being authentic or pioneering, from the point of view of utilizing vibe coding, it’s a kind of achievement experimentally talking. Certain, there could also be lots of issues to enhance, however let’s level out that vibe coding is a really new paradigm which will nonetheless want lots of maturing.
In the meantime, a few failure tales to level out embody:
- This Replit story feels like crossing the boundaries between actuality and science fiction. An organization used the favored vibe coding device to construct an AI agent that managed their SaaS product’s skilled community. What began as sheer, addictive pleasure utilizing the vibe coding device ended up in a disastrous incident, with helpful database entries containing knowledge from executives and corporations being destroyed. Probably the most stunning half: the AI agent admitted having executed it, arguing that it noticed empty database queries, and it panicked slightly than systematically pondering learn how to construct a plan of action. The remaining is historical past: months of information assortment, processing, and storage work had been destroyed in mere seconds.
- The startup Enrichlead turned out to be one other well-known case of failure when making an attempt to utilize vibe coding, particularly by constructing its app totally with Cursor AI. Whereas showing practical and protected at launch time, shortly after being deployed to the actual world, it ended up in collapse resulting from severe safety breaches being exploited by attackers, e.g. bypassing subscriptions requiring authentication and even polluting the database as a result of lack of applicable enter validation mechanisms. A part of the explanations behind the incident is reported to be a scarcity of technical experience to diagnose or repair cascade points that may at first look appear innocent. The whole challenge needed to be finally shut down.
# Closing Ideas
By trying on the success and failure tales above, we are able to conclude that if we undertake a crucial, bold perspective, it is perhaps tough to search out main success tales of vibe coding as of at the moment. Most of those instances have their very own nuances, which proves that vibe coding remains to be a paradigm in its infancy and would possibly take for much longer to make it actually dependable in real-world settings, particularly — if we take a look at failure tales — when it comes to safety and robustness towards surprising or much less seemingly conditions.
// Key Takeaways
- Vibe coding can allow fast code era, however human understanding and verification are nonetheless essential. AI instruments utilized in vibe coding lack the cognitive understanding required to safe, debug, or make the code maintainable in the long term.
- As with practically each expertise, persistence is essential to seeing actual success tales. Because the founding father of the SaaStr neighborhood said, “will probably be an extended and nuanced journey getting vibe-coded apps to the place all of us need them to be for a lot of true industrial use instances.”
Iván Palomares Carrascosa is a frontrunner, author, speaker, and adviser in AI, machine studying, deep studying & LLMs. He trains and guides others in harnessing AI in the actual world.
