AI coding glossary
Vibe Coding
Also known as: vibe coding, vibe-coding
In one sentence
An AI coding style where you describe what you want in chat and let the AI improvise, the opposite of spec-driven development.
Full definition
Vibe coding is the term for the loose, chat-first AI coding style: describe what you want in natural language, let the AI improvise an implementation, accept-or-iterate on the result. Cursor, Claude Code, and Windsurf are all strong vibe-coding tools. The opposite is spec-driven development (SDD), where you write a clear specification first and the agent implements to spec. Most experienced developers do both, vibe-coding for exploration and prototypes, spec-driven for production code with clear acceptance criteria.