Vibe coding

Vibe coding is writing software by describing what you want in plain English and letting an AI agent generate, test, and iterate the code. Named Collins Dictionary Word of the Year 2025 after Andrej Karpathy popularized the term.

In one sentence

Vibe coding is building software by talking to an AI instead of typing code yourself.

What it's for

Vibe coding lets non-programmers build working apps, websites, and tools by describing goals conversationally. It also accelerates experienced developers by handling boilerplate and repetitive tasks.

How to think about it

Think of it as having a programmer pair who types while you talk. You say “add a dark mode toggle,” they write the code. You review it, they fix it. The vibe is the back-and-forth, not the syntax.

Common misunderstandings

Vibe coding does not mean you never need to understand code. Debugging still requires reading what the AI wrote. And for production systems, you still need testing, security review, and architecture decisions.

If you want to try it

Open Replit Agent or Claude Code. Say: “Build a simple to-do list page where I can add and remove items.” Watch it generate, run, and iterate. Then ask it to add a “mark complete” feature.