Last Updated: 2/24/2026
Vibe coding is an emerging software development practice that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate functional code from natural language prompts, accelerating development, and making app building more accessible, especially for those with limited programming experience.
The term, coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy in early 2025, describes a workflow where the primary role shifts from writing code line-by-line to guiding an AI assistant to generate, refine, and debug an application through a more conversational process. This frees you up to think about the big picture, or the main goal of your app, while the AI handles writing the actual code.
In practice, vibe coding is generally applied in two main ways:
- “Pure” vibe coding: In its most exploratory form, a user might fully trust the AI’s output to work as intended. As Karpathy framed it, this is akin to “forgetting that the code even exists,” making it best suited for rapid ideation or what he called “throwaway weekend projects,” where speed is the primary goal.
- Responsible AI-assisted development: This is the practical and professional application of the concept. In this model, AI tools act as a powerful collaborator or “pair programmer.” The user guides the AI but then reviews, tests, and understands the code it generates, taking full ownership of the final product.
