Glossary Entry : Vibe Coding
vibe coding
verb, noun
Pronunciation: /vyb KOH-ding/
Definition:
The practice of building software by telling an AI what you want in plain English and letting it generate much or most of the code for you. In common use, the phrase often implies that the human is guiding the outcome more by prompts, testing, and iteration than by writing and reviewing every line manually. The term is widely attributed to Andrej Karpathy and emerged in 2025 as AI coding tools became mainstream.
ChalkTalk.ai take:
Vibe coding lowers the barrier to entry for non-coders and speeds up prototyping for everyone. It is powerful for first drafts, mockups, internal tools, and getting an idea off the ground fast. It gets risky when people confuse a working demo with production-ready software, especially if nobody is checking the logic, security, or scalability.
Use it in a sentence:
“He didn’t build the app from scratch. He vibe coded the first version over the weekend and then cleaned it up afterward.”
Plain-English translation:
You describe the vibe. The AI writes the code.
Related terms:
AI-assisted coding, prompt engineering, rapid prototyping, no-code, low-code