My First Time Vibe Coding: A Skeptic's Journey (metorial.com)

A skeptical Metorial engineer tried "vibe coding" for the first time using Claude Code to build Starbase, a low-stakes MCP (Massively Concurrency Platform) testing playground. Working in the terminal with a familiar stack (Next.js, Prisma, styled-components) they prompted the model carefully and iterated feature-by-feature — basic UI, auth, backend-hosted models, and client-side MCP connection handling. The model produced an impressive prototype quickly: a coherent UI and working core features that saved time and let the developer multitask. But as they pushed into more advanced or stateful areas, the model repeatedly introduced bugs, inconsistent error handling, duplicated logic, and poor separation of concerns. Styling and component conventions were ignored despite explicit instructions, and the model generated excessive, often useless comments. For the AI/ML community this anecdote highlights clear trade-offs. Large-code generation tools can accelerate prototyping and boilerplate for internal tools or PoCs, but they struggle with cross-file architectural consistency, complex async/stateful connection logic (the MCP client example), and global error-handling patterns — areas where human engineers and rigorous testing remain essential. The takeaway: vibe coding is a practical productivity booster when supervised and limited to low-risk projects, but it’s not yet a substitute for experienced developers or production-critical codebases.