Trends
Vibe coding: can you really build an app by just describing it?
In early 2025, the researcher Andrej Karpathy described a new way of building software he called "vibe coding" — you describe what you want in plain English, let the AI write the code, and barely look at what it produced. The phrase went viral, and by 2026 it had become both a genuine superpower and one of the most misunderstood ideas in tech. So can you actually build a real app just by describing it? Yes — and also, not quite. Here is the honest version.
“Vibe coding is the best napkin sketch ever invented. It is brilliant for finding out what to build — and no substitute for the engineering that makes it safe to depend on.”
— FortifiLab
What is vibe coding, really?
Vibe coding means building software by telling an AI what you want in ordinary language — "make a page where users upload a photo and see it resized" — and letting the model write, run, and fix the code while you mostly watch. You steer by feel and results, not by reading every line.
It is possible because AI coding tools crossed a threshold. Models like Claude, and the tools built on them, can now hold a whole small project in their head, write across multiple files, run the code, see the error, and fix it — looping until something works. What used to take a developer an afternoon can take a good prompt and a few minutes.
The result is genuinely magical the first time you see it. A non-coder can go from an idea to a clickable prototype over a weekend. That is not marketing — it is real, and it is changing who gets to build software at all.
What can you actually build this way?
Prototypes, internal tools, landing pages, simple automations, a proof-of-concept to show an investor — vibe coding is fantastic anywhere "good enough and fast" beats "bulletproof." If the worst case of a bug is mild embarrassment, vibe away.
Founders use it to test an idea before spending real money: building a rough version themselves, putting it in front of ten users, and learning whether anyone cares. That single use case has saved countless startups from building the wrong thing for six months.
The trouble starts the moment that weekend prototype gets popular and you decide to make it your real product. That is where the vibes run out.
Where does vibe coding quietly break?
The code often works without being sound. AI-generated apps frequently ship with security holes, no real handling of edge cases, and structural shortcuts that do not matter at 10 users and become emergencies at 10,000. Nothing looks wrong — until it does.
The deeper problem is what you do not know you are missing. When you did not read the code, you cannot tell whether it stores passwords safely, what happens when two people click at once, or why it will fall over on launch day. The demo hides the debt.
This is the pattern experienced teams see constantly in 2026: a founder arrives with an impressive AI-built prototype and a launch date, and the real work is quietly rebuilding the 20% underneath that vibe coding cannot yet get right — the security, the data integrity, the scale.
So how should founders actually use it?
Use vibe coding for exactly what it is great at: proving the idea. Build the rough version, validate that people want it, win the early users — all faster and cheaper than ever before. This is a gift; take it.
Then, before real money or real customers depend on it, have someone who reads the code harden or rebuild the foundation. Not because AI code is worthless, but because the difference between a demo and a product is precisely the invisible part vibe coding skips.
The smartest founders in 2026 treat vibe coding as the world’s best napkin sketch — indispensable for working out what to build, not a stand-in for the engineering that makes it safe to depend on. Use it to find the idea. Bring in real engineering to trust it with your customers.
Frequently asked
What is vibe coding?
Vibe coding is building software by describing what you want in plain English and letting an AI write the code, steering by results rather than reading every line. The term was popularised by researcher Andrej Karpathy in early 2025.
Can you build a real, production app with vibe coding?
You can build a working prototype fast, but AI-generated code often has security gaps, missing edge cases, and shortcuts that break at scale. For anything real customers or money depend on, the foundation usually needs an engineer to harden or rebuild it.
Is vibe coding good for startups?
Yes — for validating an idea. It lets founders build and test a rough version cheaply before committing. The mistake is shipping that prototype as the real product without hardening the parts AI tends to get wrong.
Will AI coding replace developers?
Not yet. AI has made building faster and opened it to non-coders, but judging whether software is secure, correct, and scalable — and fixing it when it is not — still needs engineers. The role is shifting from typing code to directing and verifying it.
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