Vibe Coding

Andrej Karpathy's offhand remark posted in 2025 sparked it all. "I'm programming on vibes alone, without even looking at the code" — that expression became the name of the movement itself.

Traditional coding was an act of "writing syntax," but vibe coding transforms it into an act of "describing in words what you want to build." When you enter a prompt in an AI-native IDE like Cursor or Windsurf, the AI generates the code, fixes any errors, and even runs the tests. The developer's role shifts from writing code to reviewing and redirecting.

That said, the term has its share of supporters and critics. It genuinely works for spinning up prototypes quickly, but ensuring the quality of production systems still requires a human who understands what's inside the code. Karpathy himself later added the caveat that "vibe coding is a prototyping technique and should be distinguished from production-quality software development."

As 2026 arrived, "Agentic Engineering" was proposed as the next stage beyond vibe coding. It is a framework in which AI agents run a Plan → Execute → Verify loop while humans provide structural oversight — essentially adding discipline to the "vibe" of vibe coding.