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Two Years of Vibe-Coding: Five Essential Rules to Prevent a Crash-and-Burn

Two Years of Vibe-Coding: Five Essential Rules to Prevent a Crash-and-Burn

Mastering Vibe-Coding: 5 Essential Rules to Avoid Development Disasters

After two years of experience in vibe-coding, I’ve discovered key strategies to steer clear of the dreaded infinite loop that often plagues software development. Here are five crucial rules that will help you navigate your coding challenges more effectively and minimize frustration.

1. Implement the 3-Strike Rule: Know When to Pivot

When working with AI for coding assistance, if it can’t resolve an issue after three attempts, take a step back. I learned this lesson the hard way when my codebase ballooned from 2,000 to an astonishing 18,000 lines while trying to fix a seemingly simple dropdown menu. By the end, the AI was wrapping my entire application in try-catch blocks!

Instead, follow this approach:
– Capture a screenshot of the malfunctioning user interface.
– Initiate a new chat session with the AI.
– Clearly articulate what you want rather than what is broken.
– Allow the AI to recreate that component from the ground up.

2. Beware of Context Windows: Keep It Fresh

It’s a little-known fact that after exchanging around 10 messages, the AI can begin to lose track of your project’s context. There was a time when I had an AI assistant believing my voice platform project was a culinary blog, all because we were stuck on debugging for so long!

Here’s my solution:
– Save your functioning code in a separate file.
– Restart the chat anew.
– Share only the relevant component that’s causing issues.
– Briefly explain the app’s purpose in a single line.

This simple technique drastically reduced my debugging time by approximately 70%.

3. The “Explain It Like I’m Five” Principle

If you struggle to summarize what’s wrong in a single sentence, you may be digging yourself a deeper hole. I once spent an entire day grappling with vague statements about “weird data flow” and “quirky state management.”

Now, I challenge myself to articulate issues simply:
– “Button fails to save user data.”
– “Page crashes upon refresh.”
– “Image upload returns undefined.”

Clear, concise descriptions lead to more effective solutions.

4. Version Control: Your Safety Net

It’s critical to commit to version control after executing every single working feature—not just daily or after significant milestones. I learned this the hard way, losing three days of valuable progress by continuously “

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