Lesson 11: The Vibe Coding Problem
Time: 30 minutes Goal: Understand why unstructured AI coding fails and how SpecWeave solves it
What is "Vibe Coding"?
Vibe coding is the practice of using AI assistants (like ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Copilot) for development without any structured workflow. You describe what you want, the AI generates code, you copy-paste it into your project, and hope it works.
Vibe Coding Session:
You: "Build me a login system"
AI: "Sure! Here's a login system..."
→ 200 lines of code generated
→ You paste it into your project
→ It kind of works
→ You move on
2 weeks later:
Teammate: "How does this auth work? Why JWT instead of sessions?"
You: "I don't remember... let me ask Claude again?"
→ Decision context lost forever
This is the dominant paradigm in 2024-2025. Most developers use AI this way.
The 5 Pain Points of Vibe Coding
Pain Point 1: Context Evaporation
The problem: Every AI conversation ends. When it ends, knowledge dies.
Monday:
"Claude, help me design the payment processing architecture"
→ Great 30-minute conversation
→ Smart decisions made about idempotency, retry logic, webhooks
→ Session ends
Friday:
"Why did we use idempotency keys here?"
→ No one remembers
→ Can't find the conversation
→ Teammate guesses wrong → bug introduced
Real cost: Teams repeat the same conversations. New team members have zero context. Architecture decisions become mysteries.
SpecWeave solution: Every conversation produces spec.md + plan.md + tasks.md. Decisions are permanent, searchable, and linked.
Pain Point 2: Scattered Implementation
The problem: Without a plan, AI generates code piece-by-piece with no coherent structure.
Monday: "Add user registration"
Tuesday: "Add login functionality"
Wednesday: "Add password reset"
Thursday: "Add email verification"
Friday: "Why doesn't any of this work together?"
Each request produced isolated code. No shared services. No consistent patterns. The registration doesn't use the same email service as password reset.
Real cost: Technical debt from day 1. Refactoring becomes the norm, not the exception.
SpecWeave solution: The /specweave:increment command creates a complete architecture before any code is written. All components are designed to work together.
Pain Point 3: No Quality Gates
The problem: Vibe coding has no checkpoint for "is this actually good?"
Generated code → copy/paste → ship
↓
No tests. No review. No validation.
Horror stories:
- SQL injection in production (AI didn't sanitize inputs)
- Memory leaks (AI didn't clean up event listeners)
- Race conditions (AI didn't consider concurrent users)
Real cost: Bugs in production. Security vulnerabilities. Customer trust destroyed.
SpecWeave solution: /specweave:qa and /specweave:validate enforce quality gates. Code doesn't ship until tests pass, security is verified, and acceptance criteria are met.
Pain Point 4: No Traceability
The problem: You can't trace code back to requirements.
# 6 months later
grep -r "calculateDiscount" .
→ Found in 12 files
→ Who requested this? Why does it exist? What's the business rule?
→ Nobody knows
Real cost: You can't change code confidently. You don't know what depends on what. Every change is risky.
SpecWeave solution: Every task links to acceptance criteria (ACs). Every AC links to user stories. Every user story links to features. Full traceability chain.
T-042: Implement calculateDiscount
→ AC-US3-02: "Apply 20% discount for premium users"
→ US-003: "Premium user discount"
→ FS-001: "Pricing feature"
Pain Point 5: Team Coordination Collapse
The problem: Multiple developers vibe-coding on the same project = chaos.
Developer A: "Claude, add a user model"
Developer B: "Claude, add a customer model"
→ Both create conflicting data models
→ Merge conflicts, architectural disagreements
→ "Whose version is right?"
Real cost: Team velocity drops. Conflicts waste hours. Inconsistent codebase emerges.
SpecWeave solution: One increment = one source of truth. /specweave:status --all shows who's working on what. WIP limits prevent stepping on each other's toes.
The Hidden Costs of Vibe Coding
Time Lost to Rework
| Vibe Coding | SpecWeave |
|---|---|
| 2 hours building | 30 min planning |
| 4 hours fixing bugs | 1.5 hours building |
| 3 hours explaining to team | 0 hours (docs exist) |
| 9 hours total | 2 hours total |
The "Works on My Machine" Problem
Vibe-coded project:
- Implicit assumptions everywhere
- "It worked when I tested it"
- No documentation of edge cases
- New developer onboarding: 2 weeks
SpecWeave project:
- Explicit acceptance criteria
- Test coverage validates behavior
- Edge cases documented in spec.md
- New developer onboarding: 2 days
Technical Debt Accumulation
Month 1: Vibe-coded MVP works great!
Month 3: "We should refactor this..."
Month 6: "We NEED to refactor this..."
Month 12: "We can't add features anymore"
Month 18: "Let's rewrite from scratch"
SpecWeave projects don't accumulate debt because every increment includes:
- Architecture review
- Test coverage requirements
- Documentation updates
- Quality gate validation
When Vibe Coding Is Actually Fine
Let's be honest. Vibe coding works for:
- One-off scripts: Need a quick Python script? Just ask Claude.
- Learning exercises: Exploring a new library? Vibe away.
- Throwaway prototypes: Weekend hackathon? Speed over structure.
- Personal projects you'll never maintain: Build it, ship it, forget it.
The line: As soon as you have teammates or users or maintenance expectations, vibe coding fails.
The SpecWeave Mental Model
Vibe Coding Mental Model
Idea → AI generates code → Ship it
(hope it works)
SpecWeave Mental Model
Idea → Spec (WHAT) → Plan (HOW) → Tasks (STEPS) → Code → Validate → Ship
↓ ↓ ↓
Permanent Reviewed Tracked
The key insight: The specification is the product. Code is just an artifact.
When you change requirements, you update the spec. Code follows. When teammates have questions, they read the spec. Not Slack. When you onboard someone, they read the spec. Not tribal knowledge.
Real-World Comparison
Scenario: Add User Authentication
Vibe Coding Approach:
Day 1:
"Claude, add user authentication"
→ Gets JWT implementation
→ Pastes it in
→ Works locally
Day 3:
"Why isn't auth working in production?"
→ Forgot to set JWT_SECRET env var
→ No documentation mentioned it
Week 2:
"Security audit failed - no rate limiting"
→ Wasn't in the vibe conversation
→ Now a critical production fix
SpecWeave Approach:
Day 1:
/specweave:increment "User authentication with JWT"
→ spec.md created with:
- AC-US1-01: Login with email/password
- AC-US1-02: JWT token issued on success
- AC-US1-03: Rate limit 5 attempts per minute
- AC-US1-04: Environment variables documented
→ plan.md created with:
- Security considerations
- Rate limiting strategy
- Environment variable requirements
→ tasks.md created with:
- T-001: Create auth service
- T-002: Implement rate limiting
- T-003: Document environment setup
- T-004: Write security tests
Day 2:
/specweave:do
→ All tasks completed with tests
→ Rate limiting included from start
→ ENV vars documented
Day 3:
/specweave:done
→ Quality gates pass
→ Security audit passes (rate limiting present)
→ Documentation complete
The Shift in Mindset
From "Build Fast, Fix Later"
❌ Old mindset:
- Speed over quality
- Documentation is optional
- Tests are for later
- Architecture happens accidentally
To "Plan Once, Build Right"
✅ SpecWeave mindset:
- 30 minutes planning saves 4 hours debugging
- Documentation IS the product
- Tests validate requirements
- Architecture is intentional
Quick Exercise
Think about your last AI-assisted project:
- Can you explain every architectural decision?
- Can a teammate understand the code without asking you?
- Can you confidently add a new feature without breaking existing ones?
- Do you have documentation that's actually current?
If you answered "no" to any of these, you've experienced vibe coding pain points.
Key Takeaways
- Vibe coding = unstructured AI development = technical debt from day 1
- Context evaporation is the #1 killer of team productivity
- Quality gates prevent bugs from reaching production
- Traceability lets you change code confidently
- SpecWeave transforms AI from a code generator to a development partner
Glossary Terms Used
- Increment — A unit of work with spec, plan, and tasks
- Acceptance Criteria — Testable conditions for success
- Quality Gate — Validation checkpoint before shipping
- Source of Truth — Single authoritative data source
What's Next?
Now that you understand WHY SpecWeave exists, let's dive deep into the initialization process that sets up your project for success.