The Art of Vibe Programming, Coding + Building (for creators)
I wasn’t sure what 2025 would look like for me. I’m an artist, musician and creator from the content/SEO world.
But, like any good plot twist, I somehow found myself diving deep into the tech space.
I now spend hours everyday vibe programming and building. And I’m freaking addicted!
I’m building tools, sites and mini apps in my spare time. It’s my new passion.
I always wanted to learn programming, but I could never focus long enough to learn the coding part. But now, my creativity and vision are how to get started. And I’m not alone on this sentiment.
There’s still a learning curve (especially for more complex builds) and it’s important to study up on best practices, etcetera, but the technical knowledge gap has shrunk enormously.
Using plain English, you can share your vision with an AI and it’ll build a pretty solid first draft for you. This is vibe programming/coding.
And it’s an awesome modern skill for creators. So I put together this guide.
Enjoy.
Table of Contents
Vibe Coding?
Vibe coding is using plain English to prompt an AI coding agent to build what you want — i.e., you don’t write the code, but you still build the thing.
The term was coined by Andrej Karpathy (cofounder of OpenAI).
Vibe coding is great for building simple tools, streamlining workflows for developers and learning about coding.
But you probably won’t build the next Todoist or Skype (RIP) straight out of the gate if you’re a complete beginner.
Still, the value is incredible and the tools available are super creative and fun to play with.
Vibe coding is a modern skill and something that’s well worth your time to learn.
Ready to level up? Epic — keep reading.
Why Vibe Coding Is Awesome for Creators
If you’re a creative or make content, then vibe coding can unlock some seriously cool opportunities.
Imagine what you can now do as a personal brand — the extra value you can add to your audience and the new money-making opportunities that weren’t there before.
Here’s why vibe coding kicks ass for creators:
It’s easy to experiment with new ideas and iterate quickly
You can build hyper-custom bespoke tools
It puts creativity and imagination first
Create anything you can imagine
It’s a valuable in-demand skill
It’s pretty dang cheap
Skills Needed for Vibe Coding
Patience
Creativity
Systems thinking
Prompt engineering
Problem-solving skills
Comfortable using AI and new technology
Tip: Instruct your vibe coding tools to make your codebase ‘modular’. This organizes your file structure into smaller “blocks” for easier code management and scalability.
Popular Vibe Coding Tools
v0. v0 (by Vercel) is a powerful front-end UI builder that leverages Next. js, React, Tailwind CSS, and shadcn UI components. You can get sleek modern designs, see changes in real time with the preview window and deploy directly to Vercel.
Replit. Replit is a powerful vibe coding tool that’s perfect for beginners and advanced users. You get a preview window of what you’re building and can deploy directly in Replit for hosting.
Cursor. For the more advanced user, Cursor is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) with a built-in coding agent. There’s no preview window though, so you’ll need to use your localhost:3000 to see and test things before deployment.
Lovable. More beginner-friendly, but still powerful. You can connect with Supabase for data management and sync your project to GitHub.
ChatGPT or Claude. These LLMs don’t build your app, but they can help by improving your prompts, fine-tuning code and crafting a more effective implementation plan.
Explore more:
➤ Using No-Code Tools As A Creator
Tool Ideas for Creators
Quizzes
Directories
Calculators
AI generators
Chrome extensions
Mini apps or SaaS products
How to Learn Vibe Coding (10 tips)
1. Choose One Vibe Coding Tool
Search up “AI tools for ____” and you’re sure to be inundated with ads, options and confusion.
As analysis paralysis sets in, you end up glitching and taking no action.
There are tons of tools out there, and some may be better suited than others depending on your goals and skill level. But ultimately, the right tool is the one you like the best.
So test what’s out there and then choose the one you like best and master it.
Keep your tool stack minimal — especially early on.
Currently, I’m using Cursor, v0 and ChatGPT for most of my vibe builds.
2. Don’t Build A Big App (start small)
If you’ve never coded before, your first project probably shouldn’t be a full-blown software, requiring user authentication, AI integrations and advanced functionalities (even if you can vibe code your way through some of it).
Instead, start by building small tools and fun test projects. For example:
Directories
Chrome extensions
A personal to-do list app
Custom calculators and quizzes
Custom GPTs — not vibe coding per se, but a great skill to stack on!
And if you’re not sure what to build, consider your own gripes with the apps you use — what do you wish existed or was different?
Or, what simple app features (that you currently pay for) could you recreate on your own?
You can also think about what your audience wants, what works best in your niche or your top performing posts.
For example, if you’re a travel blogger, you could make free tools like itinerary makers or budget calculators (hint, this is what I’m doing on my own travel blog).
After you get good at building small tools, you can expand and start thinking about more complex stuff.
3. Keep It Simple
Just like starting small, keep your vibe code builds simple. Remember, treat these like fun test projects.
So don’t worry about advanced automations (with something like Make.com) or integrating complex APIs and training custom AI agents for epic features.
You don’t need to build the next viral YC startup.
As a creator, you only need to build bespoke tools for yourself and/or your audience. If it’s a hit, then things can scale, for sure. But early on, just focus on having fun and solving micro issues.
Get comfortable with vibe coding (and its limitations, especially if you’re unfamiliar with coding and development).
You know the saying, learn to walk before you run.
Tip: I periodically prompt my vibe coding tool to review the codebase and look for redundant files, bugs, inconsistencies or unnecessary “spaghetti” code. This keeps things clean, fixing potential issues early.
4. Use Multiple LLMs
Let’s say you want to build a fashion quiz for your blog in Lovable. Should you go straight to Lovable, explain your idea and see what happens?
Sure, you could (most do). But I’ve found it’s incredibly helpful to first consult with another LLM (I use ChatGPT).
Here’s how to use an additional LLM to boost your vide coding workflow:
Create more effective prompts to feed into your vibe coding tool
Analyze code or implementation plans from your vibe coding tool
Ask for coding clarification — for example, “Hey ChatGPT, explain this [topic] like I’m 5.”
5. Learn Core Coding Concepts
Even though vibe coding doesn’t require any coding, it’s still super helpful (and almost necessary) to learn a bit about coding.
Because if you don’t know what to tell an AI coding assistant, it won’t always build things the right way (or follow best practices).
This gets especially important for safety, security and legal requirements (but also if you want to easily share your code or scale things later on).
So here’s a shortlist of a few core coding concepts, tips and tools to know:
Modular design
Data storage (Supabase, etc.)
Testing (localhost:3000, unit testing, etc.)
Security, safety and legal best practices
Different coding languages and what they do
README.md logs and version control in GitHub
6. Get Good At Code Prompting Workflows
“The quality of any AI’s response is dependent on the quality of its instructions (i.e., the prompt).”
To take full advantage of vibe coding, get good at code prompting. Let’s use ChatGPT and Cursor as a workflow example.
Before you build, it’s helpful to first share your full product vision (planned features, purpose, etc.) with ChatGPT.
Ask ChatGPT to create an optimized prompt that Cursor will best understand to create an implementation plan with.
Review the response and feed it into Cursor. Have Cursor create an implementation plan following best practices, modular design and all safety and security requirements.
Review the response. You can feed it back into ChatGPT for review.
Often, the more context, detail and instruction you give an AI, the better.
It’s also helpful to study other examples of coding prompts to get insights and ideas.
Here’s an article outlining the prompting process (with examples).
7. Build Slow (and test as you go)
My first big mistake with vibe coding was feeding my whole plan to an AI coding assistant and then having it just build everything all at once (and not following any workflow, like the one outlined just above).
The result? Bugs, errors, and feeling slightly defeated.
Oh, and a big messy codebase that was difficult to know where to problems were coming from and why.
So rather than dumping your whole idea into one prompt, give your full idea with lots of ideas — but instruct the AI to NOT build anything, but instead provide an implementation plan only.
Then, build things out one small step at a time.
Provide the full scope of your plan for context. But don’t have the AI write the code. Instead, ask it to analyze your plan and recommend a path forward.
Then, ask the AI to build the first phase and features out in the most logical way.
Creating your projects one feature at a time lets you test things as you go and easily spot errors or issues (which you can then easily log).
8. Plan Your Tool Before Building
The more clarity you have for your tool (its functions, target audience, purpose, etc.), the quicker and easier your vibe coding session will be.
While exploratory vibe coding is great for learning, if you’re trying to build a more serious polished project, then planning ahead is everything.
The more clarity, the better.
Think about the user’s journey, backend logic and general flow of your tool.
This is another benefit using an LLM like ChatGPT. It can help you flesh out your ideas into a clear plan and then give you an optimized prompt to feed into your vibe coding tool of choice.
9. Build for You—Build Fun Test Projects
Your first build probably won’t be spectacular. And neither will your second. But that’s okay.
Rather than stressing about crappy results, treat these iterations as fun test projects.
No pressure. No users. No expectations.
Build for one — build an app or tool for you and no one else.
Eventually, as you grow your skills and get better at vibe coding, you can think about getting users, scaling your tool and monetizing it.
But if you’re just starting out, start with small personal test projects and have fun.
10. Keep Learning
Okay, so vibe coding doesn’t require any actual coding. But learning about coding and development is seriously helpful.
The best tools and apps being built through vibe coding are likely coming from creators who understand the basics of development.
So stay curious and be a student. The more you know, the better your projects will be.
There are tons of free workshops and amazing creators to learn from online. For example:
The more you understand what’s going on “under the hood”, the better your prompts and results will be.
AI does what it tells you. So if you don’t know about nuanced developer best practices, you may end up with a buggy, broken, unsafe or redundant codebase.
So set a goal to learn a new concept every week and keep practicing with small test projects.
Later ✌️
Vibe coding is unlocking new potentials for creators. Technical barriers be gone, AI is democratizing software development.
As cool as this stuff is, there are limitations — especially if you’re a beginner unfamiliar with coding best practices and workflows.
So if you’re serious about building something serious, invest in learning and practicing.
Build test projects, have fun and continue to become a stronger (vibe) coder.
This is a new frontier — but it’s hyper creative and incredibly fun.
Now go build something!
