Joshua D'Costa
Growth & Marketing
May 6, 2025
|
5
min
Vibe coding has become a hot topic across tech blogs and Silicon Valley podcasts, as AI-powered “developers” can now build full applications from natural-language prompts.
Andrej Karpathy’s February 2025 tweet, “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”, sparked both intrigue and debate in developer circles.
As tools like Replit Agent and Lovable.dev democratize app creation, non-technical creators can prototype, iterate, and launch products faster than ever before.
What Is Vibe Coding?
Vibe coding is to instruct an AI agent to generate, adjust, and debug code based solely on high-level, natural-language descriptions. Rather than typing out each function or worrying about syntax, you describe what your app should do. “A to-do list with tags and reminders,” for example, and the AI writes the underlying code.
This approach blends logical problem-solving with creative and aesthetic considerations, letting you focus on app flow, user experience, and brand voice instead of boilerplate details
Where Did the Idea Come From?
So, how did "vibe coding" become a thing?
It all started in February 2025 when Andrej Karpathy, a well-known AI researcher and co-founder of OpenAI, shared a tweet that resonated with many in the tech community.
This idea quickly caught on, especially among developers and designers who were already personalizing their tools and workflows to match their unique styles. Think custom UI kits, themed code editors, and meticulously curated desk setups. The notion of aligning code creation with one's personal "vibe" felt like a natural progression.
Tools like Cursor and Windsurf (formerly Codeium) were already paving the way. These tools, along with others like GitHub, Copilot, laid the groundwork for a more AI-driven, vibe-focused approach to coding.
Vibe coding is about shifting from the traditional, rigid coding methods to a more intuitive, AI-assisted workflow that aligns with the individual's creative flow.
Why Developers Love It
More Fun & Personal: Vibe coding transforms rote syntax work into a creative dialogue, letting you shape your app’s personality through words, not code.
Improved Creativity & Flow: By offloading boilerplate generation, developers stay “in the zone” longer, reducing context switches and frustration
Polished UI/UX Outcomes: Many AI agents embed design best practices—color contrast, responsive layouts, animation snippets—automatically, so your prototype often looks production-ready right away
Tools to Get Started
Here are some tools that will help you dive into vibe coding;
Lovable.dev
Lovable.dev turns plain-English descriptions into full-stack web apps, complete with authentication, database integration, and GitHub sync, all through a browser UI. Click any element on the live preview, type what you want changed, and Lovable instantly updates the code. Pushing to your repo triggers automatic pulls, so you can seamlessly switch between code editor and visual prompts.
Cursor
Cursor is a standalone, AI-driven code editor—forked from VS Code—that understands your entire codebase and lets you “write” code by typing instructions. Its Composer feature evolved to let you invoke AI agents directly, and support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers means you can hook into databases, CI pipelines, or custom scripts to build complex apps solely via prompts
Windsurf
Formerly Codeium, Windsurf offers an agent-powered IDE that keeps you in flow with its Cascade AI, which can generate multi-file edits, suggest terminal commands, and even preview your app inside the editor. Windsurf emphasizes continuous context awareness, so as your project scales, the AI remains clued-in to your intent.
Devin
Devin functions as an autonomous AI engineer inside Slack and via an embedded IDE extension. Tag @Devin in Slack or a ticketing system, and it can plan, implement, debug, and test features across large codebases with minimal human input. Its strong suit is long-term context and dependency management for enterprise projects.
Claude Code
Anthropic’s Claude Code lives in your terminal, reads your repo to build context, and then executes natural-language commands, turning issues into pull requests, running tests, and handling Git workflows without leaving the shell. Its agentic design makes it ideal for Day 0 prototyping and Day 1+ maintenance tasks alike, though its token usage can be expensive.
Final Thoughts
Vibe coding represents a fundamental shift in software development: from writing every line yourself to directing AI with your ideas. As these tools mature, they’ll not only speed up prototyping but also broaden who can build software. Democratising digital creation for entrepreneurs, educators, and creatives alike.
Give one of these vibe coding platforms a try on your next project, and experience how letting go of syntax can unlock your most creative coding “vibes.”
