I Tried “Vibe Coding” for a Month — Here’s What Stuck

I thought vibe coding was just a cute idea. You set a mood. You match your code to that mood. You build. Simple. But I tried it for a month, and you know what? It helped me ship.

It didn’t fix every bug. It didn’t make me a wizard. But it made me feel calm, steady, and kind of… brave. That counts.

A friend’s write-up, “I Tried Vibe Coding for a Month — Here’s What Stuck”, actually convinced me it was worth a test-drive; I figured I’d see if my notes matched theirs.

What I mean by vibe coding

I start with a mood. Rainy day? Neon night? Clean studio? I set a theme in VS Code, pick a playlist, set my lights, and pick a color palette. Then I write code that fits that vibe. Names. Colors. Rhythm. Even commit messages.

Sounds silly. It’s not. If the phrase still feels fuzzy, this hands-on explainer walks through the mindset step by step.

Tools I used: VS Code, Prettier, Git, iTerm, Raycast for quick stuff.
Music: Lo-fi beats or synthwave. Nothing with big drops.
Themes I used: One Dark Pro, Tokyo Night, and occasionally Light Modern when I want a “fresh notebook” feel.

For a deeper gear dive, skim this roundup of the best vibe-coding tools; it validated most of my load-out.

One unexpected helper: I skimmed a compact guide to shaping digital workspaces over on IntranetsToday, and its tips echoed the same “set the scene first” mantra I was chasing.

It pairs nicely with this longer guide full of real code snippets if you like concrete examples.

Style goal: soft blues, calm type, no sharp edges. I kept it small on purpose.

CSS palette and style:

:root {
  --ink: #0f172a;     /* deep navy */
  --mist: #a8b2d1;    /* cool gray */
  --accent: #7aa2f7;  /* gentle blue */
  --drop: #e2e8f0;    /* light cloud */
}

body {
  font-family: Inter, system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif;
  background: var(--drop);
  color: var(--ink);
}

.card {
  width: 280px;
  padding: 16px;
  border-radius: 14px;
  background: white;
  box-shadow: 0 6px 18px rgba(15, 23, 42, 0.08);
}

.temp {
  font-size: 48px;
  font-weight: 700;
  color: var(--accent);
}

Tiny fetch logic:

async function getWeather(city) {
  const r = await fetch(`/api/weather?city=${encodeURIComponent(city)}`);
  if (!r.ok) throw new Error('weather down');
  return r.json();
}

getWeather('Seattle').then(data => {
  document.querySelector('.temp').textContent = Math.round(data.temp) + '°';
});

I kept the names soft: ink, mist, accent, drop. It helped me stay on theme. It also kept me from overbuilding. I finished in two short sessions.

Real example: Late-night neon bug hunt

I had a gnarly crash in a Next.js app. It only hit on slow networks. I switched to my “neon night” vibe: purple theme, dark room, synthwave low. I used a tiny logger so I could watch state like a heartbeat.

const log = (tag, v) => console.log(`[neon:${tag}]`, v);

export async function handler(req, res) {
  const start = Date.now();
  try {
    log('req', { q: req.query });
    const user = await getUser(req.query.id); // sometimes slow!
    log('user', user?.id);
    res.status(200).json({ ok: true, user });
  } catch (e) {
    log('err', e.message);
    res.status(500).json({ ok: false });
  } finally {
    log('ms', Date.now() - start);
  }
}

The vibe made me patient. I found a timeout in getUser. I added a fallback cache. Bug gone. Not magic—just focus.

The late-night grind also mirrored a lot of what’s in this two-week ChatGPT-5 pair-coding diary—especially the bit about lighting cues keeping you patient.

Small but real: Mood slider that swaps themes

This was just fun. I made a slider that swaps CSS variables. It felt like painting, but with code.

<input id="vibe" type="range" min="0" max="2" value="0">

const themes = [
  { ink: '#0f172a', mist: '#a8b2d1', accent: '#7aa2f7', drop: '#e2e8f0' }, // rainy
  { ink: '#111827', mist: '#d1d5db', accent: '#ef4444', drop: '#fef3c7' }, // sunset
  { ink: '#0a0a0a', mist: '#a3a3a3', accent: '#a78bfa', drop: '#0b0f19' }  // neon
];

function setTheme(t) {
  const r = document.documentElement.style;
  r.setProperty('--ink', t.ink);
  r.setProperty('--mist', t.mist);
  r.setProperty('--accent', t.accent);
  r.setProperty('--drop', t.drop);
}

document.getElementById('vibe').addEventListener('input', e => {
  setTheme(themes[Number(e.target.value)]);
});

It shipped as a demo in a day. My designer friend smiled. That was the win.

I first hacked the prototype in Replit, and this hands-on review captures the same “open browser, instant vibe” feeling.

My commit messages (yes, vibe tags)

I added vibe tags to keep my flow and track why choices felt a certain way.

feat(rainy): soft card shadow + gentle blue accent
fix(neon): add cache fallback for slow getUser
chore(clean): rename color vars to ink/mist/accent/drop

Silly? Maybe. But in two weeks, I could scan history and recall the headspace fast.

Turns out that’s one of the small habits this take on vibe-coding tools and flow swears by.

Good stuff that surprised me

I wrote faster when I picked a mood first.
I named things better. Fewer tmp and foo junk.
My UI work felt more steady and neat.
Hard bugs felt less scary. I had a “scene” to sit in.

If you want a structured learning path, this 8-week vibe-coding course recap shows how the mindset scales over a longer haul.

Rough edges I had to fix

I chased “vibes” too long some nights. Pretty can stall.
Tests slipped when I got artsy. Not great.
Themes can hide contrast issues. I missed one accessibility fail.

Some industry voices are skeptical of vibe coding’s usefulness; this recent ITPro analysis breaks down why some experts think the approach can backfire.

I learned to catch myself. Flow is great. Shipping is greater.

How I keep it sane now

These guardrails save me:

Timer: 45 minutes build, 10 minutes test and tidy.
Branch name with date and mood: feat/rainy-2025-05-10.
TODO fence in code so wander stays parked:

// TODO(vibe-parking):
// - try softer shadow on hover
// - maybe add micro-anim on temp number

End of day rule: push, PR, and one paragraph in the README about choices.

When vibe coding shines

Frontend polish, landing pages, tiny tools.
Stuck moments. It greases the gears.
Solo sprints or hack nights.
Teaching kids. It makes code feel like art.

Likewise, on nights when I need

Intranets Today