Vibe coding: what it is and why anyone can create software today

Building software used to require years of study. You had to learn to code, memorize syntax, understand data structures, and debug for hours until something worked. It was a skill for specialists.

That’s changing. And the change has a name: vibe coding.

What is vibe coding

The term was coined by Andrej Karpathy, one of the founders of OpenAI and former AI director at Tesla, in early 2025. The idea is simple: instead of writing code line by line, you describe what you want to build in plain language, and AI converts it into working code. You review the result, ask for adjustments, and keep going.

The word “vibe” captures the feeling well: it’s fluid, conversational, almost like chatting with someone who knows how to code and does what you ask.

It doesn’t mean programming disappeared. Code is still code. But you no longer need to be the one writing it line by line.

How it works in practice

Imagine you want a small web application to track your personal expenses. With vibe coding, the process can look like this:

1. You describe your idea. “I want a simple app where I can log my expenses, assign them a category, and see a monthly summary.”
2. AI generates the code. A tool like Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT produces a complete draft: the interface, the logic, the storage.
3. You test and adjust. “The save button isn’t working right” or “I want the summary to be a bar chart.” AI corrects and improves.
4. You repeat until it works. Without needing to know why the code works, only whether it does what you need.

It’s iterative, conversational, and when it flows, it feels exactly like “vibing” with the tool.

Why this matters for non-technical people

For decades, the gap between “having a software idea” and “making it exist” was enormous. You needed money to hire someone, time to learn, or luck to have a technical co-founder.

With vibe coding, that gap has closed significantly. Today you can:

• Build an internal tool for your business without hiring a developer.
• Create a prototype of your idea to show investors or clients.
• Automate repetitive tasks at work even if you’ve never coded before.
• Learn how software works in a hands-on way, from day one.

Not everything is perfect or easy. But the barrier to entry dropped from “I need to know how to code” to “I need to know how to describe what I want.”

The honest part: what’s still hard

It would be dishonest to say vibe coding is magic. Some things still need attention:

• AI makes mistakes. It generates code that looks like it works but has hidden errors. You need to test what it gives you, not just trust it’s right.
• Large projects get complicated. For small, well-defined applications, the flow is incredible. For complex systems with many interacting parts, it’s still difficult without some technical knowledge.
• Context matters. The better you describe what you want, the better the result. Learning to give clear instructions is itself a skill.

Vibe coding doesn’t eliminate human judgment. It moves it: from writing code to knowing what to ask for, how to test it, and what to do when something doesn’t work as expected.

Tools to get started

You don’t need complicated installations. These are the most used ones today:

• Claude (claude.ai): excellent for requesting code and asking it to explain what it does step by step.
• Cursor: a code editor with built-in AI, designed for vibe coding.
• ChatGPT: works well for quick prototypes and understanding concepts.

If you’ve never written a line of code, I recommend starting with Claude or ChatGPT: you can ask it to explain each part of the code it generates, and you learn while you build.

Start from scratch with something small

The best way to understand vibe coding is to experience it. Pick a small, real problem you have at work or in your life: a to-do list, a habit tracker, a calculator for something specific to your business.

Open Claude or ChatGPT, describe it in detail, and see what you get. Test it, ask for changes, iterate. You don’t need to know anything about programming to start.

If I, without a software engineering degree, built real tools using this way of working, so can you. The only difference between having an idea and having a tool that works is starting the conversation.