On this page
Short answer: vibe coding is building software by describing what you want to an AI model in plain language, running whatever code it writes, and steering by results instead of by reading the code. You say "add a login page" or "the totals are wrong, fix it", look at what happens, and ask again. The term was coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy in February 2025, and it stuck because it describes something new: people who have never written a line of code are now shipping working screens in an afternoon. This guide explains how a vibe coding session works, what it is genuinely good for, where it breaks once real users and real data arrive, and what has to sit underneath a vibe-coded front end before you can run a business on it.
Describe the app you need — we’ll build it now.
We started the prompt for you. Edit it, or describe your own app.
How vibe coding works #
A vibe coding session is a conversation with an AI model that can write and run code. It usually goes like this:
- Describe the thing. "A booking page for my dog-grooming business: pick a service, pick a time, leave a phone number."
- Run what comes back. The AI writes the code and shows you a preview. You do not read the code; you look at the screen.
- Steer by symptoms. "The times overlap." "Make the button bigger." "It crashes when I pick Sunday." You paste the error back in and let the AI fix it.
- Repeat until it looks right. Most of the work is in this loop. When it works, you ship it or show it to someone.
The defining feature is not that AI writes the code. Professional developers use AI to write code every day and still review every line. Vibe coding is the version where nobody reviews it: you accept the code because the result looks right.
Vibe coding vs AI-assisted coding vs an AI app builder #
The same prompt box sits in front of very different ways of working. What differs is who understands the result, and who is responsible for it after launch.
| Who writes it | Who checks it | Who runs it afterwards | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional coding | A developer | The developer and a reviewer | Your team: hosting, security, updates |
| AI-assisted coding | An AI model, directed by a developer | The developer reads and tests every change | Your team |
| Vibe coding | An AI model, directed by anyone | Nobody reads it; you judge the screen | Whoever set it up, often no one |
| AI app builder | An AI model, on top of a platform | The platform enforces data, security and hosting rules; you judge the app | The platform, with you able to change everything |
The last row is the subject of our guide to what an AI app builder is. The short version: the AI still builds from your words, but the parts that must not break (the database, sign-in, permissions, hosting) are run by the platform rather than generated fresh each time.
What vibe coding is genuinely good for #
It would be easy to dismiss vibe coding. That would be a mistake. For a lot of work it is the fastest tool there has ever been:
- Prototypes and demos. Showing an investor, a client or your own team what you mean is faster with a clickable screen than with a slide.
- One-person tools. A calculator, a personal tracker, a script that renames your files. If you are the only user and the only data at risk is yours, the code quality matters much less.
- Landing pages and simple sites. Pages that show information and collect an email address have little logic to get wrong.
- Learning. Watching an AI build something, then asking it why, is a real way to learn how software fits together.
- Exploring an idea before committing. Ten rough versions in a day tell you which one is worth building properly.
Where vibe coding breaks #
The trouble starts when a second person logs in, or when the data matters. The screen can look finished while the parts you cannot see are missing. These are the usual gaps:
- Permissions that live in the page. "Clients only see their own invoices" is often written as a filter in the front-end code. The screen hides other clients' rows, but anyone who opens the browser's developer tools can request them. Rules about who sees what have to be enforced on the server.
- Secrets in the wrong place. API keys and database passwords end up in code that ships to the browser, where anyone can read them.
- A data model nobody designed. Tables grow one prompt at a time. Six weeks later there are three slightly different customer tables and no one knows which one the invoices use.
- Fixes that break other things. Each request is answered on its own. Fixing the Sunday bug can quietly undo last week's change, and without someone reading the code, nobody notices until a user does.
- Everything that happens off-screen. Reminder emails, nightly reports, a webhook from your payment provider: background work needs a server that is always on, retries when something fails, and a log of what ran.
- Hosting and upkeep. Someone has to run the app, renew the domain, apply security updates and restore the data when something goes wrong.
- Regulated data. Health records, financial data and anything a customer's security team will ask about need access logs, audit trails and signed agreements. A generated prototype has none of them.
Questions to ask before you ship a vibe-coded app #
- Where is the data stored, and who can read it without logging in?
- Are the rules about who sees what enforced on the server, or only on the screen?
- Where do the API keys and passwords live?
- What happens to the app, and the data, if the person who built it leaves?
- Who is told when a background job fails, and where is the log?
- Can I get my data out, and the code, if I outgrow the tool?
- If a customer asks who accessed their records last month, can I answer?
If the answers are "I don't know" for an app that only you use, that may be fine. If the app holds other people's data, each "I don't know" is work you still have to do, by hand or by paying someone.
Vibe coding with a real backend: how Tadabase AI does it #
Tadabase AI keeps the part of vibe coding people love (describe it, see it, change it by asking) and moves the parts that must not break out of the generated code and into the platform. You describe the app; the builder creates the database, the sign-in, the roles, the row-level security, the workflows and the hosting, then builds a React front end on top. The front end is the part you vibe: you change it by asking, or edit it yourself.
| The part | Pure vibe coding | In Tadabase AI |
|---|---|---|
| Database | Whatever tables the prompts produced | Tables, field types and connected records, created from your description, with import templates for existing data |
| Who sees what | Often a filter in the page code | Roles plus row-level security enforced on the server, including "connected to the logged-in user" rules and field-level restrictions; the rules live on the server, so editing a page does not change who can read which records |
| Changes to a live app | Regenerated code you take on trust | Schema changes show a plan and an impact summary, and wait for your approval |
| Background work | You set up a server and a scheduler | Workflows on record changes, schedules and webhooks, with email templates, PDF pages and a run log for every record |
| Front end | Generated code you host | A React project you can edit in the studio with a live preview: one file per page, readable and hand-editable, with GitHub sync to your own repository |
| Hosting | Your job | Published apps are hosted for you, with a custom domain per published app |
| Logs and regulated data | Usually none | Login, record-change and delete logs with the source of each change; HIPAA-eligible plans with a signed BAA and a PHI access log |
If you already vibe code in an AI coding tool, you can keep doing that: Tadabase AI's MCP connection lets Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code and ChatGPT build and change Tadabase apps, signed in with access scoped to your own apps. The AI writes the parts that should be flexible; the platform runs the parts that should not be.
Common questions #
Who coined the term vibe coding? Andrej Karpathy, an AI researcher and a founding member of OpenAI, in a post in February 2025. He described a way of programming where you give in to the AI's output and stop thinking about the code itself.
Is vibe coding bad? No. It is a good way to prototype, explore and build tools only you use. It becomes risky when the app stores other people's data, because the parts that protect that data are the ones nobody checks.
Do I need to know how to code to vibe code? No, that is the point of it. Knowing a little helps you notice when something is wrong, which is why the questions above are worth asking either way.
Is vibe coding the same as using an AI app builder? Not quite. Vibe coding generates code and leaves the rest to you. An AI app builder generates an app on a platform that also runs the database, permissions and hosting. Many products sit somewhere in between; ask what is still your job the day after launch.
Can I vibe code an app with logins and private data? You can build one. Whether it is safe depends on where the permission rules run. If they run on the server, a front-end change cannot expose data; if they only exist in the page, they can be bypassed.
Where to start #
Write three sentences before you open any tool: who uses the app, what they keep track of, and the one rule about who can see what. Give them to Tadabase AI, or start from one of the templates at tadabase.com/templates, then log in as each role before you invite anyone. Every account starts on the free plan.