Vibe coding is writing software by describing what you want to an AI assistant, then tweaking, deleting, and retrying — riding the output instead of a detailed spec. Andrej Karpathy popularized the name in 2025; the behavior (improvise, see what happens) is older than the meme.
It lives on a prompt: natural language in, code out, then you steer. Tools like Copilot, Claude, and ChatGPT made that loop mainstream. It is not low-code (visual builders) and not a replacement for QA. The risk is shipping a pile of generated code nobody understands. The upside is speed when you isolate the experiment — a branch, a spike — then refactor.
A real-life example of vibe coding
A Decatur shop owner tells Copilot: “booking form that texts the stylist.” Ten minutes later there is a page that almost works. A developer still has to check security, HTTPS, and what happens when two people book the same slot. The vibe got a draft; review makes it a product.
Use it to explore. Don’t skip tests because the bot sounded confident. Start with What Is Vibe Coding? and how AI tools changed the practice.