vibe coding
Vibe coding is building software by telling an AI what you want in plain words and judging the result by whether it works, without reading the code it writes.
By Cal Hewitt, Gen X · Researched from public sources ·
What it means
You describe the change, the AI writes it, you run it, and you steer by what happens on screen. That last part is the whole point of the name. Andrej Karpathy, who coined it, said he accepts every change and no longer reads the diffs, the line-by-line record of what the AI altered. Whether the word is praise or a warning depends on what it is attached to. About a weekend project, a prototype or a toy built in an afternoon, it is a compliment about speed, and people say it about their own work with a shrug. About paid work that other people will rely on, it points at the step that got skipped: nobody checked what shipped. Simon Willison, a developer who writes about AI tools, draws the line cleanly: if an AI wrote the code and you then reviewed it, tested it and could explain how it works, "that's not vibe coding, it's software development." Said about yourself, "I vibe coded it" is candid and a little self-deprecating. Said about somebody else's work at a job or in a code review, it can land as an accusation of cutting corners. If you mean something specific, naming it works better: "nobody has reviewed this code yet" cannot be misread as a dig.
See the quick definition in the vibe coding dictionary entry.
How to use it
“i vibe coded a budget app over the weekend and it mostly works”
About your own side project. Candid, a bit proud, and admits nobody audited it.
“this looks vibe coded, did anyone review it before it shipped?”
In a code review or at work. A pointed question about what got skipped.
“she has never written code but she vibe coded her whole portfolio site”
Admiring. The point is that the AI made building possible for a non-programmer.
“that startup is just vibe coding and hoping”
Mocking. Used to suggest a product was built fast and without care.
Where it came from
Andrej Karpathy coined the phrase in a post on X on February 2, 2025: "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." In the same post he describes talking to the Cursor Composer tool with Anthropic's Sonnet model, asking for small changes because he was too lazy to find them himself, and pasting error messages back in with no comment.
The name is his, not a product's. It joins the casual noun "vibe", a feeling or general impression, to "coding", and the joke is that you trust the overall feel of the result instead of the code. Within weeks it was in technical reporting. By November 6, 2025, Collins Dictionary had named it Word of the Year, with a broader definition, "the use of artificial intelligence prompted by natural language to write computer code", that does not require skipping the review.
Commonly credited to Andrej Karpathy (2025), well-documented.
Where it's popular
Developer conversation on X, Hacker News, Reddit and tech blogs first, then AI-tool marketing and general news. It is used by professional developers, founders, students and security researchers as much as by beginners.
How it caught on
- February 2, 2025Andrej Karpathy coins "vibe coding" in a post on X, describing accepting an AI's changes without reading the diffs.
- March 5, 2025Ars Technica covers the practice under the headline "Will the future of software development run on vibes?", quoting Karpathy's "I 'Accept All' always".
- March 19, 2025Simon Willison argues that AI code you have reviewed, tested and can explain is ordinary software development, not vibe coding.
- September 2025AP reports that many software engineers using AI at work avoid the label, headlined "Just don't call it 'vibe-coding'".
- November 6, 2025Collins Dictionary names vibe coding its Word of the Year for 2025.
- September 2026"Bend 2 and the Vibe-Coding Trap" draws 326 points and 235 comments on Hacker News, arguing the speed can outrun understanding of the problem.
Common mix-ups
Vibe coding is not every use of AI while programming. A developer who uses an AI assistant but reads, tests and owns every change is doing AI-assisted development; Karpathy named the case where nobody reads the code. Collins uses a broader definition, so you will also see the phrase applied loosely to any AI-built software, and when it matters, the useful question is whether anyone reviewed the code.
Test yourself
Is it vibe coding?
0/21. A developer uses an AI to write a feature, then reads every line, tests it and can explain how it works. Is that vibe coding?
2. Who coined "vibe coding"?
Related slang
Questions people ask
Is vibe coding good or bad?
Both, depending on the job. It is a quick, fun way to try an idea or build something for yourself. For software other people depend on, it is risky, because the defining feature is that nobody reads the code, so bugs and security holes can ship unnoticed.
Is vibe coding a real job?
Plenty of people build real things this way, and AI coding tools are part of many developers' jobs. But AP found that engineers using AI at work often avoid the label, because it implies the review was skipped, and professional work is expected to be reviewed.
Is vibe coding paid?
There is no job title or pay rate tied to the term itself. People are paid to build software, and some use AI tools heavily to do it; calling paid work "vibe coding" usually signals it was not checked.
What are examples of vibe coding?
Asking an AI to build a to-do app, running it, and asking it to fix whatever breaks without opening the code. Or, in Karpathy's own example, asking it to "decrease the padding on the sidebar by half" instead of finding the setting yourself.
Is vibe coding an insult?
Not on its own. About your own project it is a shrug. About someone else's professional work it can suggest they cut corners, so it depends on who says it and about what.
Who came up with vibe coding?
Andrej Karpathy, in a post on X on February 2, 2025. He mentioned the Cursor tool he was using, but the name is his.
The post that coined vibe coding also admitted Karpathy talks to his AI tool by voice, so he "barely even touch[es] the keyboard".
- https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383
- https://simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/19/vibe-coding/
- https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/is-vibe-coding-with-ai-gnarly-or-reckless-maybe-some-of-both/
- https://apnews.com/article/09f35ccc7545ac92447a19565322f13d
- https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/collins-word-of-the-year-2025-ai-meets-authenticity-as-society-shifts/
- https://blog.liampwll.com/posts/bend_vibe_coding/
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