What Is Vibe Coding?
Building Software by Conversation

There's a new way to build software. It doesn't involve learning a programming language, setting up a development environment, or spending hours on Stack Overflow. It involves sitting down with an AI, describing what you want to build, and watching it appear.

The term is vibe coding — coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy earlier this year — and it's changing what it means to be able to "build things with technology."

The Old Way vs the New Way

Traditional software development requires you to think like a computer: precise syntax, strict logic, no ambiguity. You write instructions the machine can execute. Learning to do this well takes years.

Vibe coding inverts this. Instead of learning to communicate in the machine's language, you communicate in yours — and the AI translates. You describe the outcome you want, the behaviour you're after, the problem you're solving. The AI produces the code.

That doesn't mean you disengage. Good vibe coding requires clear thinking about what you actually want. You're the architect; the AI is the builder. The quality of what gets built depends heavily on the clarity of your brief.

What You Can Actually Build

The range is larger than most people expect. In a single session, working vibe coders are building:

• Internal tools — dashboards, trackers, calculators specific to their workflow
• Client-facing web apps — booking systems, intake forms, interactive reports
• Automation scripts — things that previously required hiring a developer
• Prototypes — turning an idea into something clickable in an afternoon
• SOPs converted to software — process documents that become interactive tools

None of these require knowing how to write code. They require knowing what problem you're trying to solve and being able to describe it clearly.

Claude Is Particularly Good at This

Several AI models support vibe coding, but Claude (from Anthropic) has emerged as a favourite among practitioners for a few reasons:

• It asks clarifying questions before diving in — reducing wasted iterations
• It explains what it's building, not just produces output
• It handles ambiguous requirements gracefully rather than making arbitrary assumptions
• Its outputs tend to be clean, readable, and maintainable

The workflow typically looks like: describe what you want → Claude builds a first version → you test it and give feedback → Claude refines → repeat until it does what you need.

What Vibe Coding Isn't

It's worth being clear about limitations. Vibe coding works well for:

• Self-contained tools and apps with clear requirements
• Prototyping and internal tooling
• Automating repetitive processes

It's less suited for:

• Large, complex systems with thousands of interconnected components
• Applications where security and reliability are critical and need expert review
• Situations where you need to understand and maintain the code long-term without AI help

That said — for the vast majority of tools that professionals actually need built, vibe coding is now a completely viable approach.

See It Live in Christchurch

At our April 6 meetup, Caelan Huntress will demonstrate vibe coding with Claude live — building something on stage, from description to working application. Alongside that, Greg Dickson will show how to turn Standard Operating Procedures into web apps without writing a line of code.

If you've been curious whether vibe coding could work for your business or role, this is the best possible introduction: watching it happen in real time, with someone who does it daily, and the chance to ask questions after.