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What vibe coding is, who it’s for, and everything you need to begin.
Vibe coding is building real software by describing it. You say what you want in plain English: what it does, who it's for, how it should feel. An AI agent writes the code, runs it, reads its own errors, and fixes them. Your job is direction and taste, not syntax.
The name comes from a February 2025 post by Andrej Karpathy, who described “a new kind of coding… where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists.” It started as a joke about weekend projects. Within a year it was Collins Dictionary's Word of the Year, and it's now simply how a lot of software gets made.
One thing worth knowing before you start: vibe coding is a spectrum, not a religion. Full vibes, never reading a line, is perfect for prototypes and personal tools. The moment something touches real users or real data, you add checks (and we'll show you how to make the AI do the checking too). This guide covers the whole range.
Who this is for
The same people who walk into our LA meetups: founders without a technical co-founder, designers tired of handing off mockups, operators automating their own jobs, students, and the simply curious. If you can write a clear text message, you meet the requirements.
What you need
- –A real computer. Laptop or desktop, Mac or PC. Phones and tablets can't run these tools. Newer is better, since agents are frontier software: think Apple Silicon, or a modern Windows 11 machine with current system updates.
- –About $20/month. One AI subscription once you're past the free tiers, whether that's Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus. Everything else in this guide (GitHub, Vercel, Supabase) has a free plan that comfortably covers personal projects.
- –An idea you actually want. A tracker, a tool for your job, a site for your thing. Wanting the result is what carries you through the learning curve, so pick something you'd use even if nobody else ever saw it.
Why now?
Because the tools crossed a line. Today's coding agents don't just autocomplete. They read entire projects, plan, execute, test their own work, and recover from mistakes. Things that needed an engineering team two years ago are now a weekend with a $20 subscription, and every few months the ceiling rises again.
AI Clubhouse · Vibe Coding Guide