What Is Vibe Coding? Meaning, Examples, and a Beginner's Guide

By Jovel Mark Diaz, AI Vibe Coding Instructor ·Updated July 17, 2026 ·18 min read

A year ago, if a Filipino freelancer wanted to build a website or a small app, they either learned to code for months or paid a developer. That wall is gone. I'm Jovel Mark Diaz, a full-stack developer, and these days I watch complete beginners ship real, working software in an afternoon — by talking to an AI. That shift has a name: vibe coding.

This guide answers every question people ask about it: what vibe coding is, what it means, real examples, how it works with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, whether it counts as real programming, how it compares to traditional coding, and the best projects to start with. If you've heard the term and want the clear version, this is it.

What is vibe coding?

Vibe coding is an AI-assisted way of building software where you describe what you want in natural language and let a large language model write the code for you. You judge the result by whether it works and feels right — the "vibe" — rather than by reading every line. You run it, tell the AI what's wrong, and it fixes and extends the code.

The term was popularized by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy in early 2025. His point was simple: with good AI models, you can lean into the vibes, describe your intent, and let the machine handle the syntax. What started as a half-joke became the fastest-growing way beginners are entering software.

The key mental shift is this: you are directing, not typing. Your job is to describe the goal clearly, test what comes back, and steer. The AI's job is to translate your intent into code that runs. That division of labor is what makes vibe coding feel less like programming and more like a conversation.

Vibe coding meaning, in plain terms

The meaning of vibe coding is coding by intention instead of syntax. In traditional coding, you have to know the exact words and rules of a programming language. In vibe coding, you express what you want in everyday language and the AI figures out the rules.

Here's the meaning broken into its parts:

• Describe — you say what you want in plain English or Taglish, like "build me a landing page with a signup form."
• Generate — the AI writes the actual code that does it.
• Run and feel — you run it and check whether the result matches the vibe you wanted.
• Refine — you tell the AI what to change, and it updates the code.

So when people ask for the vibe coding definition, the short version is: an AI-assisted approach to building software where you prompt a model to generate, run, and revise code through natural language, prioritizing the outcome over hand-writing the source. That's the definition we'll build on for the rest of this guide.

How vibe coding actually works

Under the hood, vibe coding is a feedback loop between you and an AI model. You don't need to understand the internals to use it, but seeing the loop makes you far better at it.

1. State the goal. Describe the project and what "done" looks like. The clearer you are, the better the first result.
2. Let the AI build. The model generates the code — HTML, JavaScript, Python, whatever the task needs.
3. Run it. You execute the code, or use a tool that runs it for you, and look at the result.
4. Report back. You describe what's broken or missing: "the button doesn't work," "make it mobile-friendly."
5. Iterate. The AI fixes and extends. You repeat until it's right.

The magic is in that loop, not in any single prompt. Good vibe coders get results fast because they describe problems clearly and iterate in small steps. I teach this exact rhythm — describe, run, fix, repeat — in the AI Vibe Coding course, and I broke the mindset down in the vibe coding mindset.

Vibe coding with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude

All the major AI models can vibe code, and each has strengths. The tool matters less than your ability to describe and iterate, but here's how the big three compare for building.

To vibe code with any of them, the flow is the same: describe your project, paste or run the code it returns, tell it what happened, and let it fix and extend. Agentic tools like Claude Code go further by editing your files and running commands directly, so you spend even less time on the mechanics. Google's Gemini developer tools and ChatGPT work well too. In our masterclasses we build with these tools live — you can see it in the Build an AI Website in 30 Minutes session.

Real AI vibe coding examples

The best way to understand vibe coding is to see what people actually build with it. These are real, beginner-friendly examples I see students ship.

• A personal landing page — "Build a one-page site for my freelance services with a hero, services, and a contact form," then deploy it live.
• A budgeting app — "Make a simple web app where I can add expenses and see a monthly total," refined step by step.
• A Chrome extension — "Create an extension that summarizes the page I'm reading," built and tested by conversation.
• A quiz or calculator — "Make a BMI calculator" or "a 10-question quiz with a score," great first wins.
• A small game — "Build a tic-tac-toe game I can play in the browser," a fun way to see the loop in action.

None of these required the person to know a programming language up front. They described the outcome, ran what the AI built, and iterated. For a hands-on set of prompts that build a full app, see 10 prompts to build your first app.

Is vibe coding real programming?

This is the debate you'll see everywhere, so let me give you an honest answer instead of a hype one. The truthful take: vibe coding produces real, working software, so the output is real. But it changes what the skill is.

Here's the nuance:

• Yes, in results. A deployed app that real people use is real software, no matter how it was written.
• Different, in skill. The hard part moves from writing syntax to describing requirements, debugging, and judging whether the output is correct and safe.
• Not a full replacement. For complex systems, security, and performance, understanding what the code does still matters a lot.

My honest position as a developer: vibe coding is a real and powerful way to build, and it's a genuine on-ramp into programming. But the people who go furthest treat it as a starting point and keep learning the fundamentals underneath. AI writes the code; judgment still has to be yours. That's exactly the balance the AI Vibe Coding Blueprint is built around.

Vibe coding vs traditional coding

The clearest way to understand vibe coding is to put it next to the old way. Neither is "better" — they trade control for speed and access.

In practice, most builders end up somewhere in the middle: they vibe code to move fast, then learn enough traditional coding to review, fix, and control the important parts. The two aren't enemies — vibe coding is the fastest on-ramp to traditional coding I've ever seen.

A simple vibe coding tutorial to start today

You don't need a course to try your first vibe coding project. Here's a mini tutorial you can do in the next hour with a free AI tool.

1. Pick a tiny project you'd actually use — a personal landing page is perfect.
2. Open an AI like Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini and describe it: "Build a one-page website for [you] with a headline, a short bio, three services, and a contact button. Use plain HTML and CSS."
3. Save and open the code it gives you as an index.html file, and view it in your browser.
4. Give feedback in plain language: "make the header dark," "add my photo here," "make it look good on mobile."
5. Add one feature at a time so you can see what each change does.
6. Deploy it free with a tool like Vercel or Netlify, and you have a live site.

That's the whole loop. Once it clicks, bigger projects are just the same steps repeated. If you want to go from this mini tutorial to building and deploying a real site with guidance, that's exactly what we do in the live masterclasses, and you can enroll in the next batch when dates open.

Best vibe coding projects for beginners

The best first projects are small, useful, and finishable in one sitting. Momentum matters more than ambition when you're learning. Here are the ones I recommend most.

• Personal landing page — the classic first build; you leave with a live site.
• Portfolio site — show your work; great for freelancers and job-seekers.
• To-do or budgeting app — teaches you input, storage, and display.
• Quiz, calculator, or BMI tool — small logic, quick wins.
• Chrome extension — surprisingly easy and genuinely useful.
• Simple game — tic-tac-toe or a memory game to make it fun.
• A basic API or bot — once you're comfortable, a step toward real backend work.

Pick one you'd actually use. When the project matters to you, the feedback loop stays motivating and you learn faster.

Limitations and mistakes to avoid

Vibe coding is powerful, but it isn't magic. Knowing its limits keeps you out of trouble.

• Shipping unreviewed code to production — fine for prototypes, risky for real apps with users or payments. Have someone check security and correctness.
• Vague prompts — "make an app" gets vague results. Describe the goal, the pieces, and what "done" means.
• Not testing — always run and click through what the AI builds; don't trust it blind.
• Never learning the basics — you'll hit walls you can't debug. Pick up fundamentals as you go.
• Giant leaps — asking for everything at once. Add features one at a time so you can catch problems early.

Avoid these and vibe coding becomes exactly what it promises: the fastest way for a beginner to build something real. The tool is forgiving; your habits decide the outcome.

Frequently asked questions

Jovel Mark Diaz

Full-Stack Developer · AI Vibe Coding Instructor

Jovel Mark Diaz teaches beginners to build and launch real websites and apps with AI, no coding background required. He leads the AI Vibe Coding track at AI Vibe PH and its live masterclasses.