What is Vibe Coding?

The term captures the essence: development decisions are made based on vibes. Does it feel like it works? Does the demo pass? Ship it.

How It Works (And Doesn't)

A typical vibe coding session:

Developer: "Build me a user authentication system with JWT tokens"
AI: [generates 200 lines of code]
Developer: *runs it, logs in successfully*
Developer: "Perfect! Merging to main."

What the developer didn't check:

• Is the JWT secret hardcoded? (often yes)
• Is password hashing secure? (might be MD5)
• Are there timing attack vulnerabilities?
• Can tokens be revoked?
• What happens on concurrent logins?

Six months later, during a security audit: "You're storing passwords with MD5 and your JWT secret is in the git history."

But the vibe was good. It worked.

The Statistics

These statistics reveal the paradox: vibe coding is incredibly common for prototypes (it's fast!) but professional developers recognize its risks for production systems.

Why Vibe Coding Is Seductive

The appeal is real:

• MVP in hours instead of weeks
• Working demo for investor meeting
• Quick prototype to validate idea
• "Good enough" for hackathon

The trap:

• The "prototype" becomes production
• Technical debt is invisible... until it's not
• You own code you cannot maintain
• Due diligence reveals the problems

The Consequences

Comprehension Debt

Vibe coding creates comprehension debt — you own working code you cannot maintain. When bugs appear, you can't fix them yourself. You can only ask the AI to fix them, hope for the best, and pray it doesn't break something else.

Security Vulnerabilities

Research shows 45-46% of AI-generated code contains security issues. Vibe coding accepts this code without security review because "it works."

IP Problems

Under current US Copyright Office rulings, AI-generated code without substantial human creative input cannot be copyrighted. Vibe-coded applications may have no IP protection.

The Alternative: Clean Vibe Coding

Clean Vibe Coding is the mindful alternative:

• You design the architecture → AI implements your design
• You understand before you merge
• You maintain ownership of your code
• You use AI as tool, not replacement

"We move fast. But we understand what we build. We own what we ship."

Related Terms

• Comprehension Debt: The gap between what code does and what you understand
• Clean Vibe Coding: The mindful alternative
• Synthetic Debt: Technical debt specific to AI-generated code
• Automation Bias: Trusting AI output more than you should

In the Book

Vibe coding is introduced in the Prologue and its consequences unfold throughout Parts I-III of Clean Vibe Code. The methodology for avoiding its pitfalls is presented in Part IV.