Vibe coding is not about perfection. It’s not about following a rigid software engineering playbook either. Instead, it’s about building in the flow — putting yourself into the IDE, experimenting, improvising, and iterating your way into working software.
Over the past weeks, I’ve been trying to build an AI Infographics Generator and then integrate it with a larger Claude-powered research tool, and the experience has taught me a lot about the messy, rewarding reality of vibe coding.
Unlike traditional coding, vibe coding doesn’t pretend that you know the whole architecture upfront. It respects the fact that ideas emerge mid-way, mistakes become learning tools, and the IDE itself is your sandbox. From this experiment, here are nine best practices I’ve learned that can help anyone vibe code smarter.
1. Start with the Skeleton, Not the Whole Body
One of the first mistakes I made was trying to design everything — prompts, outputs, formats — all at once. It quickly became overwhelming. Vibe coding works best when you sketch the bare skeleton of the project first: a main.py that runs, a requirements.txt that installs, and a README.md that explains just enough.
Think of it like building the scaffolding of a house before choosing the curtains. Once you have that skeleton, you can hang more “flesh” onto it without collapsing the structure.
2. Embrace Imperfect Prompts and Iterate
When I tried generating infographics with an AI model, the first prompts were too verbose, producing walls of text instead of clean visuals. The instinct was to fix everything at once. Instead, I learned to treat prompts like code: start simple, test, refine.
- Begin with a one-liner (“Summarize into 3 bullets”)
- Add constraints only after you see flaws (“Use JSON keys: title, bullets, metrics”)
- Test often inside your generator
- The best vibe coding happens when you don’t wait for the “perfect prompt” — you write, run, refine.
3. File Structure is Your Friend
One huge friction point was constantly juggling files like templates/, outputs/, and transformers/. When vibe coding, it’s tempting to just dump files into the root folder. But every time I organized them into logical subfolders (api_client, outputs, transformers), the IDE itself started to “breathe easier.”
Lesson: A clean file tree = a clean mind. Even in improvisational coding, structure is not bureaucracy, it’s mental clarity.
4. Code in Small, Playable Chunks
Vibe coding thrives on “seeing it work.” Instead of writing 200 lines before running anything, I forced myself to code in chunks under 50 lines. Each one should be playable — meaning I can hit run and see a partial output (even if it’s just JSON in temp/).
The psychological boost of “something works” fuels the vibe. The IDE becomes a music studio, where you’re layering beats, not finishing the symphony in one take.
5. Templates Over Hardcoding
When I first wrote infographic outputs, I hardcoded HTML strings into Python. It worked, but it killed flexibility. Switching to Jinja2 templates inside a templates/ folder let me iterate on design without touching logic.
Pro tip: Always separate content, logic, and style — it makes vibe coding sustainable over days, not just hours.
6. Let the IDE Be Your Compass
Sometimes, vibe coding means staring at squiggly red lines in the IDE. Instead of ignoring them, I learned to let them guide me to missing imports, undefined variables, or broken paths. The IDE is not just a tool — it’s a co-pilot.
Keeping an eye on:
Autocomplete suggestions → reminds you what functions already exist
File navigation → reminds you what you’ve built so far
Integrated terminal → lets you test without breaking the flow
When you’re coding by vibe, the IDE is less of a compiler and more of a compass.
7. Progress Tracking Keeps the Vibe Alive
In our experiment, I tracked progress in “days” (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3), even writing logs for each milestone. This small ritual made the project feel alive.
Instead of obsessing over GitHub issues or Kanban boards, just mark progress in a human way:
Day 1: API connected
Day 2: Templates added
Day 3: Folder merge chaos fixed
This transforms coding into a story you’re telling yourself — and keeps you motivated.
8. Accept That Dead Ends Are Part of the Vibe
Not every path worked. Some prompts bloated, some HTML refused to render, and some output modules felt half-baked. The instinct was to “delete and forget.” But vibe coding works better if you archive failures in a temp/ or scratch/ folder.
Why? Because a dead end today might be the missing piece tomorrow. In vibe coding, dead ends are not wasted time — they’re R&D.
9. Modularize Early, Scale Later
The final insight: vibe coding feels fast, but scaling a messy project is slow. The trick is to modularize while still vibing:
Every new output format = its own folder
Every new prompt = its own file
Every generator = its own class
This way, when the project grows (as mine did with Claude integration), you don’t need to rewrite everything. You just plug modules into the bigger machine.
Closing Thoughts
Vibe coding is not about sloppiness; it’s about leaning into flow without ignoring structure. From our experiment, I learned that the best vibe coding is a dance between chaos and clarity. You chase the spark, but you also build guardrails: small files, clean folders, iterative prompts, and steady logging.
The result is not just working software, but a coding experience that feels alive, exploratory, and rewarding. And in a world where AI tools, IDEs, and creativity collide, vibe coding may be the most natural way to build the future.
📌 Key Takeaway: Vibe coding works best when you balance play with discipline. Keep it modular, keep it testable, and above all, keep the vibe alive.
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