Two Years of Vibe-Coding: Five Essential Rules to Keep Your Projects from Going Up in Flames

Mastering Vibe-Coding: 5 Essential Rules to Prevent Coding Catastrophes

After dedicating two years to vibe-coding, I have unlocked the secrets to sidestepping those frustrating endless debugging loops. Whether you’re just starting out or have a bit of experience under your belt, implementing these strategies can save you time and sanity.

1. Embrace the 3-Strike Rule

The first strategy is simple but powerful: If you find that the AI fails to resolve an issue after three attempts—step away. I learned this the hard way when my codebase ballooned from a manageable 2,000 lines to a staggering 18,000, all in the futile pursuit of fixing a dropdown menu. By the end, the AI had layered my entire application with unnecessary try-catch blocks.

Instead, try this alternative approach:

• Take a screenshot of the malfunctioning interface.
• Initiate a new chat session.
• Clearly articulate your desired outcome, rather than lamenting what’s gone wrong.
• Allow the AI to reconstruct the component from the ground up.

2. Be Mindful of Context Windows

Here’s a little-known fact: the AI’s ability to remember context diminishes significantly after around ten exchanges. I once had Claude misidentify my AI voice platform as a cooking blog due to extensive discussions centered on debugging a persona-switching feature.

To combat this lapse in memory, I recommend:

• Saving functional code to another file frequently.
• Restarting the conversation.
• Pasting only the pertinent portion of code that requires attention.
• Adding a succinct sentence about your application’s function.

This method has slashed my debugging time by nearly 70%.

3. Use the “Explain Like I’m Five” Approach

If you can’t concisely describe the problem in a single sentence, chances are you’re in for a long slog. I exhausted six hours trying to clarify that “the data flow is strange, and the state management appears off, but also, sometimes the UI doesn’t refresh correctly.”

Now, I force myself to simplify my language into straightforward statements such as:

• “The button isn’t saving user data.”
• “The page crashes upon refreshing.”
• “The image upload feature returns undefined.”

Concise descriptions facilitate more effective solutions.

4. Implement Version Control as Your Safety Net

Remember to commit with Git after every functional feature, not just at the end of the day