SlangRising
Vibe Coding
noun
Building software by describing what you want to an AI and steering the results through conversation, often without closely reading the generated code.
What it means: Vibe Coding
Vibe coding puts the desired result ahead of the implementation. You ask for a feature, run what the model produces, and describe what should change next. The phrase is also used loosely for almost any AI-assisted programming, although that broader meaning loses the original emphasis on letting go of the code. Reviewing every change and testing it carefully is a different working style, even when the same tools are involved.
How people use it
I vibe-coded a little birthday countdown, then spent the evening figuring out why every day was Friday.
Usually playful and sometimes self-deprecating. A person may use it to celebrate a quick prototype or to admit that they do not fully understand how it works.
Illustrative example written for this dictionary.
Why it matters
The phrase separates the ability to produce software from the ability to explain, maintain and secure it. That distinction matters when a weekend experiment becomes something other people depend on.
For another angle, explore Agentic Coding and Prompt Engineering.
Where it came from
Andrej Karpathy introduced the phrase in a widely shared February 2025 post. It became a useful label for a recognizable experience: making something work by talking to a coding model. The boundaries of the term remain contested, especially when it is applied to professional software development.
Source & further reading
Simon Willison: Not all AI-assisted programming is vibe coding — a March 2025 discussion of the distinction between the original meaning and broader AI-assisted coding.