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Vibe coding for dummies: 11 tips for building with AI

<p>Everyone's talking about <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.indiehackers.com/post/starting-up/the-definitive-glossary-of-ai-terms-for-indie-hackers-C3cgxQxUVxJm8RrInGYY">vibe coding</a> these days, but not many are sharing tips on how to do it well.</p><p>In part, this is because vibe coding is so new. It's barely been a month since Andrej Karpathy <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383">coined the concept</a> on X, which isn't enough time for anything like a broad consensus to form around best practices.</p><p>But enough time <em>has</em> passed for lots of indie hackers to have stumbled onto insights we can all take advantage of.</p><p>So Courtland and I spent some time on X pulling these insights together: from picking the right AI models, to avoiding time-wasting headaches, to debugging code you didn't even write, to building in public:</p><h2>1. Use a smarter model for planning</h2><p>Use smarter models to plan and use Claude 3.7 Sonnet to vibe code.</p><p>Tell Grok 3, GPT-4.5, or o1 Pro Mode to make a PRD (product requirements document) for your "junior engineer," then copy-paste its plan to the agent you're using to code, like Claude Code, Cursor, or Windsurf.</p><p>This is super useful as your code grows more complex:</p><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/yacineMTB/status/1896926303980503067" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>it's basically an open secret that software development has been entirely automated (and in GA) when you use grok or gpt4.5 as a planner and claude the tool using retard as the executor</p><p>— kache (@yacineMTB) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/yacineMTB/status/1896926303980503067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><h2>2. Start over, often</h2><p>When vibe coding, start over, often. You're not going to get it right the first time. So just go crazy:</p><ul><li><p>Accept everything Claude suggests</p></li><li><p>Get to a breaking point as fast as possible</p></li><li><p>Then take what you've learned and start over with your new learnings</p></li></ul><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/fredsters_s/status/1899538644332929483" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>one thing I've learned w vibe coding is that, rather than building an app with layers upon layers, you build the whole app in an exploratory fashion and through that learn the spec and features<br><br>and then you rebuild it with a new core prompt<br><br>over and over</p><p>— Fred Stevens-Smith (@fredsters_s) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/fredsters_s/status/1899538644332929483?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><h2>3. Use separate files</h2><p>Tell Claude to vibe code using separate files.</p><p>You don't want all your code in a single massive file. It'll overwhelm Claude's context and make it slow.</p><p>Ask for small, well-organized files. (In many cases it will do this automatically.)</p><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/IndieHackers/status/1899852053465518089" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>Tell Claude to vibe code using separate files.<br><br>You don't want all your code in one massive file. It'll overwhelm Claude's context and make it slow. Ask for small, well-organized files. (In many cases it will do this automatically.)<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://t.co/g2GmVWAc1W">https://t.co/g2GmVWAc1W</a></p><p>— Indie Hackers (@IndieHackers) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/IndieHackers/status/1899852053465518089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><h2>4. Context is everything</h2><p>Understanding context is key for vibe coding.</p><p>Claude only knows what's in context, so you need to skillfully manage what's in context every time you make a request.</p><p>Here are great tips on that from <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://x.com/simonw">Simon Willison</a>, the co-creator of Django:</p><blockquote><p><em>“Most of the craft of getting good results out of an LLM comes down to managing its context—the text that is part of your current conversation.</em></p><p><em>This context isn’t just the prompt that you have fed it: successful LLM interactions usually take the form of conversations, and the context consists of every message from you and every reply from the LLM that exist in the current conversation thread.</em></p><p><em>When you start a new conversation you reset that context back to zero. This is important to know, as often the fix for a conversation that has stopped being useful is to wipe the slate clean and start again.</em></p><p><em>Some LLM coding tools go beyond just the conversation. Claude Projects for example allow you to pre-populate the context with quite a large amount of text—including a recent ability to </em><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://support.anthropic.com/en/articles/10167454-using-the-github-integration"><em>import code directly from a GitHub</em></a><em> repository which I’m using a lot.</em></p><p><em>Tools like Cursor and VS Code Copilot include context from your current editor session and file layout automatically, and you can sometimes use mechanisms like </em><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://docs.cursor.com/context/@-symbols/overview"><em>Cursor’s @commands</em></a><em> to pull in additional files or documentation.</em></p><p><em>One of the reasons I mostly work directly with the </em><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://chatgpt.com/"><em>ChatGPT</em></a><em> and </em><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://claude.ai/"><em>Claude</em></a><em> web or app interfaces is that it makes it easier for me to understand exactly what is going into the context. LLM tools that obscure that context from me are less effective.”</em></p></blockquote><h2>5. Get ready for hundreds of prompts</h2><p>You can't one-shot everything with vibe coding.</p><p>It's going to take you dozens (if not hundreds) of AI prompts to build a fully fleshed-out app or game that's good enough for other people to use.</p><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/NicolasZu/status/1897538768652960230" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>Currently vibe coded a full 3D game with threeJS thanks to Cursor and Sonnet 3.7. in approx 250 prompts <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://t.co/Fm7wjtjoJw">https://t.co/Fm7wjtjoJw</a></p><p>— Nicolas Zullo (@NicolasZu) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/NicolasZu/status/1897538768652960230?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><p>Of course, with hundreds of prompts, things will become very complex. And with complexity, errors will accrue.</p><p>Know what that means?</p><h2>6. Be prepared to write SOME code</h2><p>Don't believe the hype about apps being "100% coded by AI."</p><p>The AI <em>will</em> get stuck, especially as your codebase grows. So be prepared to write some code by hand.</p><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/levelsio/status/1899088821016240183" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>When this happens I've had to resort to just fixing the bugs myself and rewriting stuff<br><br>Nothing more frustrating than trying to make AI fix the bug and it just makes it worse every time<br><br>Sometimes happens! <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://t.co/XlbxwJYPOs">https://t.co/XlbxwJYPOs</a></p><p>— @levelsio (@levelsio) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1899088821016240183?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><p>The less technical you are, the bigger a problem this will become. So the next tips is about reviewing and debugging:</p><h2>7. “Vibe debugging” and code review</h2><p>Just as you should use smarter models for planning, you should use smarter models for code review.</p><p>Reading all the code that Claude writes (especially 3.7 Sonnet) can take forever. So have Grok 3 or o1 pro mode do it for you. Just copy-paste the files Claude edited and tell them to review it.</p><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/csallen/status/1899745018304422058" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>I'm convinced the killer use case for o1 pro is vibe coding.<br><br>It's the bread in the vibe coding sandwich:<br><br>🍞🍞 o1 Pro Mode to plan 🍞🍞<br>🍅🧀 Sonnet 3.7 to code 🍖🥬<br>🍞🍞 o1 Pro Mode to review 🍞🍞<br><br>Here's the recipe:<br><br>1. Brainstorm with o1 pro. Copy-paste your…</p><p>— Courtland Allen (@csallen) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/csallen/status/1899745018304422058?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><p>You can also have your agent write tests!</p><p>If you aren't sure <em>which</em> tests you should ask it to write, or how <em>many</em> tests it should write, just use the PRD you created in the planning phase as a reference.</p><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/Flomerboy/status/1899657034284282249" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>vibe coding pro-tip - tell your agents they can write tests and add debug UI when you're still "bulking", then remove that stuff when you're feature complete ("cutting")</p><p>— Ryan Mather (@Flomerboy) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/Flomerboy/status/1899657034284282249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><h2>8. CRUD apps turn out better than games</h2><p>Despite all the attention that's gone to AI games in the past few weeks, expect vibe coding to go a lot smoother when building basic CRUD apps than with graphically demanding apps like games.</p><p>(CRUD stands for <strong>Create, Read, Update, and Delete </strong>— the four fundamental operations used in software development, particularly in web apps and databases.)</p><p>Why? Because Claude and other AI models struggle to get graphical APIs right. They struggle to draw vectors, and they struggle to know what looks good.</p><p>Vibe coding is magical in a lot of ways, but definitely not in getting things to look great.</p><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/NicolaManzini/status/1898823729582379484" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>Damn LLMs are so much better at writing crud code for my backend compared to writing threejs. It's like they don't get vectors.</p><p>— Nicola (@NicolaManzini) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/NicolaManzini/status/1898823729582379484?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><p>But who am I kidding? You probably want to vibe code some games. So here are some tips on that:</p><h2>9. Use Three.js for 3D games</h2><p>If you're making a 3D game, tell Claude to use Three.js.</p><p>It's the gold standard and can make beautiful games like this one from Nicola Manzini:</p><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/NicolaManzini/status/1896379978943705110" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>NEW GRAPHIC JUST DROPPED FOR MY SAILING GAME. <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://t.co/IhHtenMHHT">pic.twitter.com/IhHtenMHHT</a></p><p>— Nicola (@NicolaManzini) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/NicolaManzini/status/1896379978943705110?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><h2>10. For 2D games, avoid engines altogether</h2><p>If you're making a 2D game, avoid engines.</p><p>Just tell the AI to write code without one. You don't need Pixi.js, Godot, etc., and your AI will hallucinate their APIs if you use them.</p><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/dannypostmaa/status/1898691675763216622" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>Dude I tried libraries and it fucking sucks. <br><br>Told it to generate its own engine and boooooom</p><p>— Danny Postma (@dannypostmaa) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/dannypostmaa/status/1898691675763216622?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><h2>11. Share what you ship</h2><p>Vibe coding is still a shiny new object that no one can stop talking about. Use this to your advantage by sharing what you're working on.</p><p>It doesn't matter if your social media posts get 0 likes. Share every step. Especially when you get stuck. When other people see, they're likely to chime in with helpful tips you didn't know about.</p><div data-tweet-url="https://x.com/levelsio/status/1899495267025449069" class="tweet-embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>So <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/sw33tLie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sw33tLie</a> just blew my mind<br><br>Apparently there's a ThreeJS world editor<br><br>Export your world in console with:<br><br>console.log(JSON.stringify(scene.toJSON()))<br><br>Copy that JSON blob, save it in a file, then go to <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://t.co/0sZ2jLuiTf">https://t.co/0sZ2jLuiTf</a> and press Import, then select that file<br><br>And… <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://t.co/LO5YkBTYtU">https://t.co/LO5YkBTYtU</a> <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://t.co/yVpeUV0iwR">pic.twitter.com/yVpeUV0iwR</a></p><p>— @levelsio (@levelsio) <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1899495267025449069?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2025</a></p></blockquote></div><p>You can also learn from other people's examples: my <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.indiehackers.com/post/starting-up/how-5-vibe-coded-ai-games-went-viral-despite-their-creators-having-tiny-audiences-VKa1DsSICLniUWvWlsAg">writeup earlier this week</a> explained how five vibe-coded AI games went viral, despite their creators having tiny audiences.</p>
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Chu Chu Chu AI, Summarization, Chrom Extension 1

Chu Chu Chu: Making AI Accessible to Everyone

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