Vibe Coding: What It Is and What You Can Do With It

If you’ve paid attention to any mass media outlets of late, you’ve likely at least heard the term “vibe coding”. Based on what you’ve seen, there’s a good chance that you’re either confused about the subject or have a negative view of it. To clear that up, here’s an overview of vibe coding. We’ll cover what it is, what you can use it for, and why you should care. We’ll even cover why so many people seem to think that it’s going to lead to the end of days for programmers everywhere. Let’s get started.

What Is Vibe Coding, Anyway?

Vibe coding is a colloquial term that describes prompt-driven, conversational AI-powered programming. The term itself — like so many things these days — originated in a tweet by AI developer Andrej Karpathy. His overarching point was that AI agents had become so good at basic-to-intermediate programming tasks that developers could now issue commands and sit back to enjoy the ride. And in truth, AI-assistants for pro software developers are already doing just that.

Why Is Vibe Coding Making So Many People Mad?

The reason that the general public and the internet intelligentsia look upon vibe coding with angst and derision is simple: fear. There’s the fear that AI is about to destroy countless well‑paid developer jobs. And the truth is, it probably will. Then there’s also the fear that AI‑generated code won’t be as secure as human‑written code. And guess what? It often isn’t. However, that doesn’t mean that vibe coding is going away. In reality, the tools we see today will only get better. They’ll iron out their security issues and become a critical part of the global digital economy.

Is Vibe Coding Just for Software Developers?

At this point, unless you’re a software developer, you may be wondering why you should care about vibe coding. The answer is that you don’t need to be a software developer to use vibe coding to do some useful things, as shown by how AI tools are already helping non‑technical workers. For example, you could use it to whip up a tool to solve nagging inconveniences you might be facing. Consider these ideas as a starting point:

Budget and Expense Tracker

Today’s vibe coding tools are more than capable of building simple apps. They’re especially great at building apps that handle maths for you. For example, you could prompt a vibe coding agent to build you an Excel spreadsheet tool that automates budget and expense tracking. You can request useful features like:

• The ability to import CSV‑format data from financial institutions (like your monthly banking or credit card transactions)
• Auto‑categorisation of transactions
• Spending visualisation generation
• Unusual spending alerts

A Simple Inventory Tracker

If you own a small business or just need help keeping track of the groceries in your cupboards, consider vibe coding an inventory tracker. If you build it as an Android app, it could leverage your smartphone’s camera to enable a bevy of useful features. For example, you could ask the AI agent to connect your app to available online barcode databases to auto‑identify products. You could also build in an image‑recognition function to automatically fill in information about products with unknown barcodes.

An Email Manager

If you’re constantly trying to unbury yourself from an avalanche of email, you could vibe code yourself some help. For example, you might use it to create an app that checks your email, categorises messages by importance, and summarises the most vital messages. If you’re feeling ambitious, you could even build in an autoresponder that suggests replies to speed up your answers.

Where Can I Start Vibe Coding?

If you’re interested in trying your hand at vibe coding as a non‑developer, it’s easy to do. Multiple platforms offer fairly generous free usage tiers to let you start building whatever you’re imagining. And even though they’re free, they’re fully functional. The main limitations on most platforms are the number of prompts per day. To get coding right now, check out:

• Google AI Studio — if you have a Google account — even a free one — you can use Google AI Studio right now. It boasts generous prompt limits and multiple coding models to choose from.
• Replit — Replit was one of the earliest AI‑assisted coding platforms and is still one of the best. It offers a free tier with more than enough capabilities to turn almost any app idea into a reality.
• Bolt — if you’re looking to rapid‑prototype a website or online app, Bolt is a great place to start. It combines access to multiple major AI models from major firms like Anthropic and offers an extremely generous free usage tier.

So What’s the Catch?

At this point, it’s only fair to add a few disclaimers. The first is that it’s critical to remember that mastering a vibe coding tool doesn’t make you a developer. You should never try to pass yourself off as one, or the liability for any of the code you sell becomes yours. That said, you should also be aware of what you say and share with a vibe coding platform. Always remember that your prompts and the information you provide may become training material for the AI agent you’re using.

It’s also important to note that if you build an app with a public‑facing portal or interface, someone will eventually try to hack it, and they’ll probably succeed. So, don’t entrust a vibe‑coded app with financial or other data that someone could use against you. And if you are building something — like the budget tracker suggested above — that imports financial transaction data, run it on a trusted computer inside a secure network. You should probably avoid building any internet connectivity into your app for good measure. But if you must, at least pass your app’s code through a vulnerability detector like Semgrep or VulnHawk before you put it into regular use.

The Bottom Line

The reality is that, like it or not, everyday people are eventually going to become app builders, even if they don’t know it yet. So, it makes sense to take some time to get familiar with the process via a vibe coding platform. Because sooner or later, you’ll have similar functionality popping up in places like Amazon’s Alexa and other digital assistants. Therefore, it would be wise to learn a bit about what’s going on under the bonnet before it becomes a routine part of your daily life.