Vibecoding: a beginner's guide

Foxhound5366

Foxhound5366

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So after a couple interesting YouTube videos, I decided to embark down an AI vibecoding rabbithole to see where it leads.

I'm interested in web development, so after a chat with Gemini I decided to install Local (to host a copy of my Wordpress website and back up snapshots to Google Drive) and then do development using Cursor (which is supposed to be the new flavour-of-the-month when it comes to AI-powered IDEs).

My personal coding background is limited to one year of Computer Science at University, soooo JavaScript, Java, HTML and CSS. Over the years doing all the coding myself I've had some fun using that combination, so this feels like the logical next step.

What do you think? Any fellow vibecoders on here having success with Local and Cursor when it comes to website development?

Any other tools I should look at?
 
Are you vibe coding or just asking how people are faring with AI assisted coding while running a local agent ir whatever?
 
I tried out Cursor to see what all the hubbub is about - but for Android Apps.
Background: Ive got quite a bit of programming experience.
At the end of the day I was able to create an app in a language I didnt use before and it went fast
However there were at least 3 major hurdles that I encountered and they could only be fixed with coding knowledge.

For example there was a limitation on an array size, i.e. the code it gave me was correct but because
theres a built in limitation on the size once I uploaded my data the app will not work and according to AI
there is nothing wrong with the code.

TLDR Without programming language knowledge the program would have DEFINITELY failed.
Vibe coding works with simplicity, the minute it gets complex it crumbles.
 
bchip said:
I tried out Cursor to see what all the hubbub is about - but for Android Apps.
Background: Ive got quite a bit of programming experience.
At the end of the day I was able to create an app in a language I didnt use before and it went fast
However there were at least 3 major hurdles that I encountered and they could only be fixed with coding knowledge.

For example there was a limitation on an array size, i.e. the code it gave me was correct but because
theres a built in limitation on the size once I uploaded my data the app will not work and according to AI
there is nothing wrong with the code.

TLDR Without programming language knowledge the program would have DEFINITELY failed.
Vibe coding works with simplicity, the minute it gets complex it crumbles.
Click to expand...
Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing! I’m going to ask the AI to stick to HTML and JavaScript for me, so I have a chance of fixing it myself at least. I’m not a front-end designer and that’s where AI can really excel. I’ll share my experiences here.
 
I am not going to give my thoughts on WordPress and vibecoding, but what is the use case here? What do you want to achieve with WordPress, and why WordPress?

OT:

Vibe coding is in such a weird, social, state right now. There are people I know who use vibe coding who are proactively speaking out against it on social media :ROFL:
 
I've seen a few guys who never coded before build quite decent apps using vibe coding. I didn't look at the code itself but the apps were fairly extensive and looked good.

It was good enough that I gave it a shot as well and I could put together something in a day that would have taken me at least a week to do the old school way.

The problem through is I still had no idea what the code looked like so if I were to take that to production I would need to run through everything.

If you use visual code and add either Claude code, codex or other with the console its pretty easy to use the prompt to wire up a boilerplate and add real functionality.

Things have come a very long way, I'm not ready to use it for an enterprise level project but quick POC's, Operational tools and trying concepts its really wild how quick you can get stuff running.
 
Adenoid Hynkel said:
Wtf is a vibe coder? Clipboard engineers?
Click to expand...

Ever since Linus Torvalds started doing 'vibe coding'. Some are arguing that "AI-assisted development" and "vibe coding" are not the same. Vibe Coding was coined by OpenAI, and they have since built tools around that, and so have others.

In the end, everyone has their sentiments towards it, their own interpretations, and however it suits them. Nobody wants to be known as a vibe coder, but will use agentic AI nonetheless.

There was a time when people with limited knowledge sought answers on discussion boards, today they can ask Claude and the like. Why have a middle-man, when you can remove two?

Also, you knew what vibe coding was, so why ask?
 
Adenoid Hynkel said:
Wtf is a vibe coder? Clipboard engineers?
Click to expand...
Vibe coding is an AI-assisted software development approach, coined by Andrej Karpathy in early 2025, where developers use natural language prompts to have AI tools (like Cursor or Replit) generate, debug, and iterate on code, focusing on high-level goals rather than manual syntax. It accelerates prototyping by allowing creators to describe, "vibe check," and refine applications, treating AI as an agent to build software.
Click to expand...
 
B-1 said:
I've seen a few guys who never coded before build quite decent apps using vibe coding. I didn't look at the code itself but the apps were fairly extensive and looked good.

It was good enough that I gave it a shot as well and I could put together something in a day that would have taken me at least a week to do the old school way.

The problem through is I still had no idea what the code looked like so if I were to take that to production I would need to run through everything.

If you use visual code and add either Claude code, codex or other with the console its pretty easy to use the prompt to wire up a boilerplate and add real functionality.

Things have come a very long way, I'm not ready to use it for an enterprise level project but quick POC's, Operational tools and trying concepts its really wild how quick you can get stuff running.
Click to expand...
Yeah nobody is paying me for this. It’s just a hobby. We all need to start embracing AI as just another tool, and that means using it and figuring out what’s the best approach.

What I like about Cursor is it can give AI access to a specific codebase you’re working on, so you don’t need to upload files manually to an external AI and then copy and paste back into an IDE. Here, the AI knows your code and proposes edits or new code to you to approve, directly in-line with the rest of the code.

And yes, I know I’m a year late onto this trend … but that’s just given both Cursor and AI a chance to mature a lot in the interim.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
Ever since Linus Torvalds started doing 'vibe coding'. Some are arguing that "AI-assisted development" and "vibe coding" are not the same. Vibe Coding was coined by OpenAI, and they have since built tools around that, and so have others.

In the end, everyone has their sentiments towards it, their own interpretations, and however it suits them. Nobody wants to be known as a vibe coder, but will use agentic AI nonetheless.

There was a time when people with limited knowledge sought answers on discussion boards, today they can ask Claude and the like. Why have a middle-man, when you can remove two?

Also, you knew what vibe coding was, so why ask?
Click to expand...

No.

Vibe coding was not coined by OpenAi.

Vibe coding is literally someone just letting the AI build the whole thing and who cares what the code looks like. As long as it works. Whatever.

Assisted AI coding is getting agents to help with very specific areas of development and not make all the decisions.

Vibe coding is fine for small simple apps and non critical things. But if you want robust, production grade software - you don’t vibe code it in a day. You get developers to build it - who may or may not use AI assistance.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Yeah nobody is paying me for this. It’s just a hobby. We all need to start embracing AI as just another tool, and that means using it and figuring out what’s the best approach.

What I like about Cursor is it can give AI access to a specific codebase you’re working on, so you don’t need to upload files manually to an external AI and then copy and paste back into an IDE. Here, the AI knows your code and proposes edits or new code to you to approve, directly in-line with the rest of the code.

And yes, I know I’m a year late onto this trend … but that’s just given both Cursor and AI a chance to mature a lot in the interim.
Click to expand...

Yes thats pretty much the standard way of doing things at the moment with most of them. Give it access to a folder let it run git so there is commits, rollback branching etc. Then ask it to build the boilerplate and then start adding features. All from the prompt and it can read, create and edit the files directly.
 
My first vibecoded mini-website, thanks to Cursor: obviously it's a lottery number generator!

I'd asked for something "colourful and fun" ... phew. Lesson learned: specify individual colour rgb codes next time!

As for the actual functionality though, I'm happy. It created a working prototype from a single prompt (complete with spinning number animations while the draw is taking place and a celebration effect at the end), and before I knew it I was just working through a couple versions and asking the AI to change this and that and ... Cursor makes it dead easy because it just applies the edits and you refresh the webpage to see what havoc you've caused.

Vibecoding.JPG
 
Fulcrum29 said:
Ever since Linus Torvalds started doing 'vibe coding'. Some are arguing that "AI-assisted development" and "vibe coding" are not the same. Vibe Coding was coined by OpenAI, and they have since built tools around that, and so have others.
Click to expand...

To me vibe coding is someone who has no clue how the code works and more than likely never even sees it. Why the word coding is even in there I don’t know.

AI-assisted coding is an entirely different thing use by a professional who knows what’s potting AND more importantly sees and understands what the AI is doing.
 
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