The short version
You say what you want in plain words: “a booking page for my salon” or “a game where a cat dodges falling pianos”. An AI writes the code and runs it. You look at the result, react to it (“bigger buttons”, “make it harder”) and the AI changes it again. You steer by feel, the vibe, rather than by reading every line.
The term was coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy in early 2025, and it quickly became the name for this way of making apps, websites and games.
How it works
- Describe the idea, the people it's for and the one thing it must do well.
- Look at the first version in a live preview. Click everything.
- React in plain words. Point at what's wrong, one change at a time.
- Repeat until it feels right, then put it online.
What it's good for
- Landing pages, waitlists, portfolios and small business sites.
- Simple tools: trackers, booking forms, calculators, dashboards.
- Small games you can play on a phone.
- Trying an idea in an afternoon before spending money on it.
Where it gets hard
- Big, vague requests. “Build me Airbnb” goes worse than one clear screen at a time.
- Things that handle money or personal data. Test them yourself and ask the AI to explain how they work.
- Secrets. Never paste API keys into the chat. Put them where your tool keeps settings.
Vibe coding with VibeDream
VibeDream is built for this. Describe an app or game by typing, talking or adding a picture, and you get a live preview in seconds. Apps are built with React and FastAPI, games with Phaser. When you're happy, one tap puts it online with a free address, and the code is yours.
New to it? Follow the getting started guide or start from a template.