Vibe coding describes a fast, prompt-driven style of building where the developer steers an AI conversationally — "make it do X", "now fix the bug" — and judges results by whether the app seems to work, rather than by reading the code line by line.
It is genuinely powerful for prototypes, throwaway scripts, and exploration, where speed matters and the cost of being wrong is low. The trouble comes when vibe-coded output flows into production systems that must be maintained, secured, and reasoned about. Code accepted "on vibes" is code no one on the team understands.
The mature version keeps the speed but adds a checkpoint: before AI-generated code becomes something you own, confirm you understand what it does and why. That is the difference between vibe coding as a prototyping tool and as an accumulating liability.