What I Learned From Vibe Coding

I used to think AI-assisted coding was just a productivity boost — a faster way to write the code I already knew how to write.

I was wrong.

After a few real projects, I realized it's not about writing faster — it's about thinking differently. You stop treating AI like a tool and start treating it like a collaborator. And that shift changes everything.

The Early Days — Copilot and Cursor

When I first tried Copilot and Cursor in late 2024, it was rough. The concept made sense — an AI that could code beside you — but in practice, it was frustrating.

It chewed through tokens, got stuck on simple loops, and somehow managed to break more than it fixed. I spent more time debugging its mistakes than writing code myself.

Eventually, I gave up.

At the time, it felt like the promise of "AI pair programming" was still a few years away.

Then Came Firebase Studio

A few months later, I stumbled across Firebase Studio. I started using it to build an admin panel for my AI content workflow — the same automation system I'd built with Airtable, n8n, and my custom MCP server.

Instantly, I was hooked.

It was the first time I saw what "vibe coding" could actually feel like. Everything just worked — Tailwind, shadcn/ui, deployment, version control — it all came together seamlessly.

I wasn't just impressed by the UI. I was impressed by how beautifully intuitive it was. As someone who's not a frontend developer by trade, this was my first real exposure to modern UI stacks — and it changed how I thought about product development.

But once I started connecting it to real cloud functions, things got messy. The AI didn't handle backend logic or emulator bugs well. I'd ask it to fix something, it would try, fail, and I'd have to rephrase the same request three times.

It was fast — until you needed depth.

Round Two — Copilot, Revisited

By mid-2025, Copilot had matured — and I gave it another shot. This time, it was night and day.

It no longer burned through tokens, the model was smarter, and the workflow actually worked. For $1–2 a day, I could get hours of productive, conversational coding done.

Still, there were quirks.

Copilot doesn't handle terminal processes well. It constantly kills servers when it tries to run npm run dev because it doesn't know how to background processes. I eventually had to write a copilot-instructions.md file that literally says:

"Never run npm run dev unless asked."

Even then, it sometimes ignored me.

And when it came to command execution, it's like dealing with a well-meaning intern who's just too confident. It'll propose the wildest shell commands, then freeze the session waiting for permission while you've gone to make coffee.

Still, the raw improvement was undeniable.

"The best thing about Copilot isn't that it knows how to code — it's that it knows how to learn from your codebase and adapt to your patterns." — My experience after 6 months

It finally felt like having a smart junior developer who could pick up on context and actually help solve problems, not just generate boilerplate.

Verdict: 8/10 for frontend, 7/10 for backend. It's finally reliable — but only if you keep it on a leash.

The SpecKit Era

SpecKit came next, and I had mixed feelings.

What I loved: the structure. Everything is explicit. Specs are written out, tasks are broken down, and you can literally see the AI's plan before it executes. That's a huge leap in trust and control.

What I didn't love: the overhead.

For small features, it over-engineers everything. Ask it to add a button, and it'll spin up a 20-task roadmap with commit messages, tests, and clarifications for every possible edge case. It's overkill — but it's also the cleanest system I've seen for building complex, documented features from scratch.

It shines in large, well-scoped builds — like my RappyTalk and MCP projects. You can hand off the entire spec, walk away, and come back to something functional, tested, and organized.

Tool	Best For	Weakness	Rating
Firebase Studio	Frontend prototypes, UI design	Backend logic, complex systems	6/10
Copilot	General development, pair programming	Terminal handling, over-confidence	7.5/10
SpecKit	Large features, structured builds	Overhead for small tasks	8/10

Verdict: 8/10 overall. Save it for when you're building new systems, not when you're tweaking old ones.

What Vibe Coding Really Means

Vibe coding isn't about which tool you use. It's about what happens when human intent meets AI intuition.

I can architect systems. I know how to design workflows, APIs, and data flows. But I can't possibly stay up to date on every new frontend library, testing framework, or CSS convention.

AI can.

Copilot, SpecKit, and Firebase Studio all know how to use the newest tech — Tailwind, shadcn/ui, Vitest, Flutter, whatever's next. They bring the latest patterns to your fingertips, instantly.

That's the real magic: it collapses the learning curve.

A developer with deep architectural knowledge plus AI's ability to implement new tech is a superpower. It's the perfect marriage between human systems thinking and machine execution.

What I've Learned

Before: I was trying to control AI coding. After: I learned to collaborate with it.

The best results don't come from barking commands — they come from conversation, iteration, and structure.

AI isn't replacing engineers. It's replacing the friction between idea and execution.

Key Takeaways

1. Treat AI like a co-founder, not a contractor. The best sessions feel like brainstorming with a really smart partner who happens to know every programming language.

2. Use Firebase Studio for fast frontends, Copilot for flexible building, and SpecKit for structured systems. Each tool has its sweet spot.

3. Never let the model "free roam" — structure equals speed. The more clearly you define the system, the smarter the AI becomes.

4. The future of coding isn't hands-free — it's hands-on, but amplified. You're still the architect, but now you have an infinite team of specialists.

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"In the end, vibe coding isn't about automation — it's about augmentation. It doesn't make you less of a builder. It just makes your potential infinite." — The real lesson

This isn't about replacing human creativity or problem-solving. It's about removing the tedious parts so you can focus on what actually matters: solving real problems for real people.

The Future Is Collaborative

Looking ahead, I think we're just scratching the surface. The next wave won't be about better autocomplete or faster code generation. It'll be about AI that truly understands context — your codebase, your team's patterns, your business constraints.

Imagine an AI that knows your deployment pipeline, understands your data models, and can reason about the downstream effects of architectural decisions. That's where this is heading.

But here's what won't change: the need for human judgment, creativity, and systems thinking. AI might get better at implementing solutions, but humans still need to understand what problems are worth solving.

Vibe coding is just the beginning. The real opportunity is learning how to think with AI, not just use it.

And once you make that shift, there's no going back.