So what is Vibe Coding anyway??
Vibe coding is an AI-assisted coding approach where you describe what you want in natural language (i.e., the way you would talk to a friend), and an AI generates code for you.
Similar to pair programming, which involves two humans collaborating closely on code, “vibe coding” uses an AI system (like GitHub Copilot or ChatGPT). The person writing code acts more like a creative director than a coder—guiding, testing, and refining AI-generated code.
“Vibe Coding” does require you to know some code because we can’t fully trust the code that AI writes. For example, AI-generated code may have huge gapes, errors and bugs, or security vulnerabilities. However, for small, personal, or “not super important” projects, using AI in a pair-programming manner is incredibly helpful for folks who need a little help. I love using it for projects I haven’t looked at in awhile, for code I’m not familiar with, and for hardware projects.
AI systems are also great at explaining code – if you’re unsure what a code repo or a specific file does, you can ask pretty much any AI assistant to help explain it to you. GitHub Copilot is a great starting point because it’s built into GitHub!
Check out some of the resources below to learn more about what’s out there and try it for yourself!
If you’re not a coder but want to learn, I recommend the following process:
- Find a project you want to try or a project you want to build from scratch.
- Need ideas? Check out projects on this website, or head over to Instructables or Hackster IO!
- Use your preferred AI assistant to explain bits of code in that project. If you’re starting a new project, have the AI explain how you might approach the code and find you a project that is similar.
- An example prompt for a new project: “I want to build a game similar to pong but with penguins. Break down the steps to do this and give me recommendations for how I can write code for this. Give me code samples that I can start with or find me a similar project.”
- Change game similar to pong but with penguins to whatever project you want to build!
- An example prompt for a new project: “I want to build a game similar to pong but with penguins. Break down the steps to do this and give me recommendations for how I can write code for this. Give me code samples that I can start with or find me a similar project.”
- Use GitHub Copilot to create a code repository for your project.
- Do pair programming with GitHub Copilot, starting with the code samples or existing example it gave you in Step 2.
Where to Try Vibe Coding
Tools that are beginning friendly are highlighted in **stars** 🙂
1. IDE-Based AI Assistants
–**GitHub Copilot** – Works in VS Code or on GitHub. It’s great for autocomplete, refactoring, and agent-style help
– **Claude Code** (from Anthropic) – Terminal-based agent for multi-file edits and repo-wide tasks
– Cursor – an AI-powered IDE with repo-wide chat, refactoring, and debugging
– Google Gemini Code Assist – AI assistant for VS Code, JetBrains, Android Studio
– Replit Ghostwriter & Agent – Browser-based IDE with AI code generation and full-stack builds
2. Prompt-to-App Builders
– **Lovable** – Converts one-line prompts into full-stack apps with auth, CI, and deployment
– Bolt.new – In-browser app builder using WebContainers, deploys to Netlify instantly
– **Subframe** – A design-focused tool with a drag-and-drop visual editor. Optimized for React & TailwindCSS.
– v0 by Vercel – Text-to-UI builder for React components using Tailwind
– HeyBoss – No-code platform for building apps and games via simple prompts
3. Enterprise & Privacy-Focused Tools
– **Microsoft Copilot** – a secure, AI-powered assistant integrated into Microsoft 365 apps (like Word, Excel, Teams, and Outlook) that uses enterprise-grade privacy, compliance, and access to organizational data via Microsoft Graph.
– **Amazon Q** – an AI assistant for enterprise workflows and developer productivity.
– Sourcegraph Cody – a repo-wide AI assistant for large teams
– Tabnine – Local or VPC-hosted AI assistant with customizable models
– Continue.dev – VS Code extension supporting any model, runs fully local (i.e., no data sent to a cloud)
Happy coding!