With AI ramp up in Generative AI since around 2018, people have been going nuts. And I mean crazy – giving AI free reign on their code and “Vibe Coding”

So what is Vibe Coding exactly? Vibe Coding is building software by typing what you want into AI, letting it generate the code, testing it, and iterating until it works – no deep coding knowledge required.

Vibe coding has the following loop / traits:

1. Type what you want – Open your editor (like VS Code) and describe your idea.
2. Wait for AI to generate code – Let the AI do the heavy lifting.
3. Test it – Run the code and see if it works.
4. Repeat if necessary – Tweak prompts or regenerate until you get the desired result.

So technically, you don’t need to be able to read / write and debug code to do this. As long as it works – that’s good enough. That’s Vibe Coding.

So what is the problem?

The issue with “Vibe Coding” is that it refers itself to bad, unscalable and ungoverned code. This then creates an umbrella term when developers start using AI to code, it also steers developers away from using AI. It’s generating a practice and stigma towards using AI to code.

Solution === Prompt Engineering

We need to code better. In general and especially with AI.

In comes prompt engineering to solve this issue. It’s the practice of interacting with AI in a structured matter, and using tools to achieve a desired goal. That main goal is scalable solutions. Without the need to refactor the mess that typical Vibe Coding brings it. It is essential. It is a skill. If you’re curious about how to create good prompts vs bad prompts, check it out here.