I haven’t even read the code; a Vibe Coder’s Retrospective

For the last few months, I've been a vibe coder. Not in the sense of just 'feeling' the code, but truly delegating the nitty-gritty to my AI co-pilot, Cursor, trusting its judgment on the 'vibe' of the solution rather than meticulously reviewing every line myself. I'm writing and shipping code without any direct knowledge of how it works, how it was constructed, or even what language it's written in. Occasionally, at the very start, I used all my powers to manifest a Google search, "does this look correct?" It came out blank. Other than that, all my coding has lived entirely in the IDE, entirely unread by me, its intended creator. Productivity has never been higher, shipping anxiety is a distant memory. My IDE has even started taking its own initiatives."Git push" is occasionally my job, but not exactly if Cursor has anything to say about it.

My Workflow with Cursor: The AI-Native IDE

My AI co-pilot, Cursor, is my brother in arms. For those unfamiliar, Cursor isn't just another IDE; it's an AI-native environment with an integrated agent, making it ridiculously easy to give context to and create code. Our current workflow is something along these lines:

1. I tell Cursor, thoroughly, what we’re hoping to accomplish.

2. I ask Cursor to go through whatever code exists in the repo, line by line, to examine what’s there, and how it might interact with any new thing we might implement. At this stage, and throughout the process, I also ask Cursor to explain to me how stuff works and what I might expect. This isn't just about getting the job done; it's about staying vaguely informed, even if I'm not doing the heavy lifting.

3. I ask Cursor to develop a plan: how should we attack the problem?

4. I ask Cursor to evaluate the plan: does it cover every use case we’re after?

5. If yes, I ask Cursor to execute the plan (yolo mode on), and lean back.

6. After it’s done, I ask Cursor to evaluate the implementation.

7. Then I ask it to triple-check it.

8. Then I ask it to run the code.

9. Occasionally, there are errors, but if Cursor’s running the code, it fixes those on the fly.

The Upside of Not Reading Code

Sure, productivity has never been higher, and shipping anxiety is a distant memory. But more than that, this approach with Cursor has allowed me to focus on the big picture = the system architecture, user experience, and the strategic direction of projects, rather than getting bogged down in syntax. It accelerates my ability to learn new technologies, because I don't have to grok every single detail upfront. Of course, there are moments I wonder if I'm slowly forgetting how to actually code, but then Cursor assures me everything's fine, and honestly, who am I to argue?

So, what do you think? Is 'vibe coding' the future, or just a really efficient way to avoid reading documentation?

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