Vibe Coding Isn’t Just a Vibe

Shimmering Substance - Jackson Pollock

Think of this post as your field guide to a new way of building software.

Let me take you back to when this all started. Andrej Karpathy tweeted about "vibe-coding"—this idea of letting AI write your code while you just vibe. The developer community had a good laugh. It sounded like the ultimate developer fantasy: kick back, sip coffee, let the machines do the work.

Then Anthropic released Sonnet 3.7 and Claude Code, and something unexpected happened. The joke stopped being funny because it started being… possible? Of course, our trusty friend Cursor had been around awhile but this new interface finally felt like true vibe coding.

Vibe-coding is more like conducting an orchestra. You’re not playing every instrument—you’re directing, shaping, guiding. The AI provides the raw musical talent, but without your vision, it’s just noise.

There are three distinct postures you can take when vibe-coding, each suited to different phases in the development cycle:

AI as First-Drafter: Here, AI generates initial implementations while you focus on architecture and design. It’s like having a junior developer who can type at the speed of thought but needs constant guidance. Perfect for boilerplate, CRUD operations, and standard patterns.
AI as Pair-Programmer: This is the sweet spot for most development. You’re actively collaborating, bouncing ideas back and forth. The AI suggests approaches, you refine them. You sketch the outline, AI fills in details. It’s like pair programming with someone who has read every programming book ever written but has never actually shipped code.
AI as Validator: Sometimes you write code and want a sanity check. AI reviews for bugs, suggests improvements, spots patterns you might have missed. Think of it as an incredibly well-read code reviewer who never gets tired or cranky.

The Three Modes of Vibe-Coding: A Practical Framework

After months of experimentation and more than a few production incidents, I’ve settled on three distinct modes of operation. Each has its own rhythm, its own guardrails, and its own use cases.

Mode 1: The Playground

Lighter Fluid

When to use it: Weekend hacks, personal scripts, proof-of-concepts, and those “I wonder if…” moments that make programming fun.

In Playground Mode, you embrace the chaos. Claude writes 80-90% of the code while you provide j...

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