What Is Vibe Coding: A Shift from Writing Code to Giving Instructions
What Vibe Coding Refers To
The term “Vibe Coding” has been appearing more frequently. In this article, I organize what I have come to understand about this development style through actual use.
Vibe Coding is a development style in which, instead of writing code yourself, you tell an AI in plain language what you want to build, and then use the code the AI generates to construct a site or feature. Even without knowledge of programming language syntax, you can give instructions like “I want to create this kind of page” or “I want this button to navigate to another page,” and receive working code in return.
In traditional development, the task of converting what you want to build into a programming language was handled by humans. In Vibe Coding, the AI handles that conversion. Humans focus on deciding “what to build” and judging “whether what was generated matches the intent.”
What It Can and Cannot Do
The tasks that Vibe Coding is suited for are clear. Adjusting the appearance of pages, rearranging text and images, adding navigation, placing forms — in short, any task that can be expressed in words as “I want it to look like this” or “I want to add this feature.”
On the other hand, there are tasks that Vibe Coding handles less effectively. Security judgments (for example, whether a configuration connecting to an external service is safe), decisions about the direction of performance optimization, and choices between multiple implementation approaches all require human verification in the end. The AI implements what it is instructed to do, but it cannot substitute for the judgment of whether that implementation is correct in light of the goal.
The Quality of Instructions Determines the Results
What I noticed most while using Vibe Coding is that the content of instructions determines the quality of the output. If I say “make it look cool,” the AI will modify the design in one direction, but that direction may not match my intent. When I say specifically, “set the header background color to white and set the font size to 16px,” the result comes back much closer to what I had in mind.
Making instructions specific requires practice in putting the purpose and desired state of what you want to build into words. This feels less like a technical skill and more like a thinking habit of organizing requirements. Rather than learning a programming language, what is needed is the ability to clearly articulate “what you want to build.”
Who It Suits
I think Vibe Coding fits people in the following situations.
- Those who want to build a site or feature, but do not intend to make programming their primary profession
- Those who want to bring ideas to life but want to minimize the time spent on implementation
- Those who cannot write code themselves, but can review generated code and make judgments about it
Conversely, for large-scale system design or pursuing implementations that must meet specific performance requirements, combining Vibe Coding with traditional programming skills is necessary. Vibe Coding does not eliminate coding — it changes how you engage with coding.
Summary
The essence of Vibe Coding is not “you do not have to write code,” but rather “instead of writing it yourself, you have AI write it, and you devote yourself to judgment and verification.” The role changes.
The first thing to check when starting this development style is whether you can organize in your own words “what you want to build.” Giving instructions to AI is also the act of clarifying the purpose before implementation begins.