Would You Fly in a Vibe-Coded Plane?

Vibe coding—AI-assisted code generation through natural language prompts—is here. It’s fast, it’s fun, and it’s expanding who gets to build. As Inc. recently noted, “vibe coding is changing how software gets built” (Inc).

At Firehill, we think vibe coding is a great tool for prototyping and exploration. But in production environments, where thousands of users rely on software, the story is different. Speed without rigor can turn into fragility, debt, and risk.

The Gains: Why Vibe Coding Works

• Rapid prototyping: From two weeks to 20 minutes, ideas get real quickly.

• Lower barriers: Non-engineers can spin up working tools.

• Creative flow: Everyone from designers to product managers can experiment hands-on.

That’s the good news. But production has higher stakes.

The Losses: Why Production Is Different

When vibe-coded prototypes are dropped directly into production, issues multiply:

• Opaque codebases: Code “works” but no one knows how.

• Security gaps: Hidden vulnerabilities slip through.

• Technical debt: Quick gains now, costly rewrites later.

• Governance risks: Teams building without IT oversight.

For instance, our teams know the difference between frameworks like React and Vue. In React, a simple state change can re-render an entire sub-tree of components, requiring optimizations like PureComponent, shouldComponentUpdate, or immutability to keep things efficient. Misapplied, these can create inconsistent DOM states. In Vue, dependencies are tracked automatically during render, so only the affected components update.

That level of architectural understanding is what separates a working prototype from a production-grade system. And vibe coding won’t give you that insight.

The Firehill POV: Craft Still Matters

We believe vibe coding has its place: prototyping, ideation, early exploration. But for production, our stance is clear:

👉 We don’t ship vibe-coded software to production unless it has passed the same rigorous QA and review we demand of hand-written code.

That means:

• Code review by engineers who understand it.

• Automated test coverage.

• Security audits.

• Performance profiling under real loads.

• Documentation for maintainability.

Without that, running vibe-coded software in production is like flying a vibe-coded plane.

Final Word

Vibe coding is here, and it’s powerful. But production software isn’t just about speed—it’s about stability, trust, and craft. At Firehill, our motto is simple:

Ride the vibe, but never skip the craft.