Martin Fowler defines vibe coding as building software by prompting an LLM without ever reading the generated code, a technique coined by Andrej Karpathy in February 2025. He distinguishes it from agentic programming, where developers still review and care about the code. Vibe coding lowers the barrier to entry for non-programmers but introduces serious risks around security, correctness, and maintainability. Fowler argues it is best suited for disposable, limited-audience software and warns against using it for complex or widely-deployed applications.

4m read timeFrom martinfowler.com
Post cover image

Sort: