Vibe Coding for the Rest of Us

What it is, how to begin, and what to know before you build your first little app.

You’ve probably asked AI to write something for you by now: an email, a caption, a particularly diplomatic response to a particularly annoying message.

But have you also asked it to build something you can use?

Vibe Coding 101

In simple words, vibe coding is when you describe what you want in plain English and let AI write the code and build it for you.

In our video, we demonstrated it by building the Beeculator, a calculator whose flower buttons release bees. (Later we also turned the flowers into onions and gave the Onion Calculator something to cry about!)

Instead of writing every line of code, we explained what the software should do and responded to what the AI produced.

People use the phrase vibe coding with varying degrees of seriousness. For our purposes, think of it as a way to begin building through conversation, even before you can write the underlying code yourself.

It usually takes a few rounds

Building with AI works more like a conversation than a single request. Your first message gives the AI something to start with. Once you see what it makes, you’ll notice what you actually wanted, and then you can ask for changes.

“A simple study timer” sounds clear enough until you have to decide what happens when someone pauses it, resets it, or finishes a session. Those decisions get much easier once there’s something on the screen to react to.

Pick something small and familiar to build first

Good first projects are small and personal.

A few ideas:

A quiz to help you revise something you’re learning
A timer that follows your own work-and-break routine
A page for an event, with all the details guests keep asking you for
A daily checklist of things you need to do
A tiny game made just for your friends

We’d pick something you already know well, because then you can tell whether it works. You know what a useful checklist or a fun quiz feels like, and that instinct is exactly what you’ll use to judge what the AI makes.

Choose a tool that lets you try what it builds

For a first experiment, use a tool that builds the thing and lets you try it in the same place. Claude, for example, can create artifacts: interactive tools that open right beside your conversation, which you can keep asking it to change as you go. Claude’s guide explains how they work.

You don’t need to learn a long list of tools before you start. Just pick one that runs what it makes, so you can go back and forth between describing and trying.

Writing your first request

Let’s say you want that study timer. You could start with something like this:

Build an interactive study timer. I want to work for 25 minutes, then take a five-minute break. Include Start, Pause, and Reset buttons, and make the countdown easy to read on my phone.

You can use the same structure for almost anything by answering three questions: What are you making? Who is it for? What should someone be able to do with it?

For an event page, that might mean guests can find the address, check the schedule, and RSVP. For a quiz, it might mean answering one question at a time and getting an explanation after each answer. Your first request only needs enough detail to get started. You’ll figure out the rest by using what it makes.

Test it like you’re the user

Once your timer shows up, play with it. Does Pause stop the countdown? Does Start pick it back up? What does Reset do? Can you read it easily on your phone?

Say you press Reset and the display goes back to 25:00, but the countdown keeps running. You expected it to stop and wait. Now you have something specific to tell the AI:

When I press Reset, the display returns to 25:00, but the timer keeps counting down. Reset should return it to 25:00 and leave it stopped until I press Start.

That’s great feedback, and it didn’t take a single word of programming.

The same goes for how it looks. “Make it nicer” leaves the AI guessing. “Make the countdown bigger and space out the buttons so I can tap them easily” tells it exactly what to change and why. That’s the real skill you’re building here: turning a vague feeling into a clear observation.

After every change, test it again. Check the thing you asked it to fix, plus a couple of things that already worked, in case something else broke along the way. When you land on a version you like, save a copy before you keep experimenting.

A few things worth knowing early

Your app may not need AI to keep running. AI can write the code for a timer, but once it’s built, regular code handles the countdown. A quiz that makes up fresh questions every time, on the other hand, might need AI each time someone uses it.

A screen that works is only part of the story. If you build a checklist, close it and open it again. Are your items still there? If you share it, does each person get their own list, or does everyone see the same one?

Things will break, and that’s normal. When something goes wrong, tell the AI what you did and paste in any error message you see. It can often fix the problem, but don’t take “it’s fixed now” at face value. Try it again yourself.

Try our calculators

You don’t have to start from a blank page. As promised in the reel, here are both calculators:

To make your own version, sign in to Claude and look for Duplicate in the menu beside the calculator’s title and start making changes!

Your first project can be small enough to finish and weird enough to make you curious. A tool for just one person still counts. (And if that person wants a calculator full of onions, we’ve already done some of the work!)

Come hang out with the confused kids :)

We post short, fun videos as we figure out AI, staying a few steps ahead so you don’t have to.

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. And if this postcard helped, forward it to a friend who’s just as promptly confused!