Vibe coding is building a software application by prompting an LLM, telling it
what to build, trying it out, prompting for changes – but without looking at
any of the code that the LLM generates. This technique can be used by people
without any knowledge of programming. However the resulting software often
shows problems with maintainability, correctness, and security – so is best
used for disposable software written for a limited audience.
The term was coined in February 2025 by Andrej Karpathy, an experienced
programmer, in a post on X:
There’s a new kind of coding I call “vibe coding”, where you fully give
in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists.
It’s possible because the LLMs (e.g. Cursor Composer w Sonnet) are getting
too good. Also I just talk to Composer with SuperWhisper so I barely even
touch the keyboard. I ask for the dumbest things like “decrease the padding
on the sidebar by half” because I’m too lazy to find it. I “Accept All”
always, I don’t read the diffs anymore. When I get error messages I just
copy paste them in with no comment, usually that fixes it. The code grows
beyond my usual comprehension, I’d have to really read through it for a
while. Sometimes the LLMs can’t fix a bug so I just work around it or ask
for random changes until it goes away. It’s not too bad for throwaway
weekend projects, but still quite amusing. I’m building a project or webapp,
but it’s not really coding – I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and
copy paste stuff, and it mostly works.
The key point about vibe coding is “forget that the code even exists”.
This is what gives it much of its usefulness, but also its limitations.
Since the November Inflection many programmers are
getting LLMs to write all their code, commenting that they may never write a
line of code directly again. However they do care about this code, reviewing
it, paying attention to its internal structure. In that case, they aren’t
forgetting the code exists, so it’s really a different thing that I call
Agentic Programming. Sadly the term “vibe coding” really
caught on, so many people use it to mean agentic programming. However I feel
that despite this rapid Semantic Diffusion, it’s worth
trying to keep the concepts of vibe coding and agentic programming separate,
as they are both different to use and different in their consequences.
Because a vibe coder doesn’t look at the code, they don’t need programming
skills, so it’s perfect for someone with no programming knowledge to build
applications for their own use. Experienced programmers may also find it handy
for rapid development of disposable software or prototypes.
Vibe coding
is still new, so we are exploring its limitations, and those limitations
change as the sophistication of models and their harnesses change. These
limitations do introduce considerable risks, particularly if the vibed
software is used widely or has access to sensitive information.
Perhaps the most serious risk is that of security. LLMs are inherently
vulnerable as they provide a large attack surface for predators. Vibe coded
applications can often expose sensitive information or worse, credentials to
attack deeper into an organization’s systems. Even non-programmers need to be
aware of the Lethal
Trifecta.
With little attention to the code, vibed software can rapidly produce
many lines of code of a very low quality. Such code makes it difficult, even for an LLM,
to modify and enhance the software in the future. While it’s possible that
growing LLM capabilities will allow it to work with even the largest bowls of
spaghetti software, thus far it seems clear that well-structured software
makes life easier for LLMs too.
LLMs are famous for habit of hallucinating incorrect facts and presenting
these with great confidence. This habit also leads them to create software
that behaves incorrectly – and those errors may not be manifest to the user.
Furthermore the non-determinism of LLMs means that it’s likely that asking an
LLM to enhance some software could easily lead it to introduce errors, even in
parts of the code that shouldn’t change due to the new request. We should thus
treat LLM-generated software with skepticism, it can still be useful, but we
need to be aware of the risks.
On the whole vibe coding software is best used for disposable software
that’s only used by its author or a close group of collaborators who
understand and accept the risks involved. Code that is more complex, more
widely-used, and with more consequences to its risks should not be forgotten about.
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