2  What is Vibe Coding

“Vibe coding” is an AI-assisted software development technique introduced by Andrej Karpathy (a co-founder of OpenAI) in February 2025.

The term quickly gained recognition among software developers, AI practitioners, and tech media.

Reference Reading

2.1 How It Works

Traditional Coding: A human types: print("Hello World").

AI-Assisted Coding: A human types half a line, and the AI suggests the rest (auto completion).

Vibe Coding: It is a software creation approach where developers describe tasks to a large language model, rely on it to generate code, and evaluate results through execution rather than reviewing or editing the code.

2.2 Vibe Coding: An Example

  • A human says, “I want an web app that tracks our Q3 sales goals and sends a Slack alert if we drop below 80%.”
  • The AI then autonomously writes the code, sets up the server, connects the database, and fixes its own bugs.
  • The human only need to know how to run the code to test whether it is working as expected.
  • If not, the human keeps asking for revisions in natural language instead of inspecting or modifying the code itself.

2.3 Is Coding Skills Required?

ImportantCoding Skills Is Still Required

Vibe coding lowers the barrier, but it does not remove the need for technical literacy.

Vibe coding reduces how much code you write, not how much responsibility you have.

Why This Matters:

  • You must run and test the code — real apps don’t run inside chat; they run in terminals, servers, or browsers
  • You need to validate outcomes — knowing what “working” looks like requires understanding logs, errors, and outputs
  • AI-generated code can fail silently — without basic coding knowledge, you won’t know whether results are correct or misleading
  • Debugging still happens — even if AI writes the code, humans must recognize when something breaks and why
  • Security and data risks remain — you need enough literacy to spot unsafe behaviors (e.g., exposed keys, wrong data access)

2.4 Minimal Technical Skills Required for Vibe Coding

  • Run code in professional environments
    • Use VS Code, GitHub Codespaces, and cloud runtimes
    • Understand how to start, stop, and rerun applications
  • Basic operating system & terminal literacy
    • Navigate files and folders (Linux basics)
    • Use terminal commands
  • Understand core code artifacts
    • What is a python script file?
    • Know the difference between .py files and Jupyter notebooks
  • Clear product thinking
    • Have a concrete idea or prototype in mind before prompting
    • Break ideas into steps the AI can execute
  • Version control with Git (your regret medicine)
    • Save working versions; roll back when the AI makes mistakes