**The Unfulfilled Promise of Vibe Coding: A Journalist's Experience**

As a journalist, I've had the opportunity to delve into various emerging technologies, including the concept of "vibe coding." Proponents claim that it's a revolutionary approach that enables developers to create high-quality software with unprecedented ease. However, my personal experience with vibe coding has been underwhelming, and I'm not alone in my skepticism.

I decided to put vibe coding through its paces by tackling a real-world problem using the popular tool, Claude Code. My goal was to fix a build failure in my Nix configuration that had been plaguing me for hours. The issue was reproducible only on certain machines and not on others, making it a perfect test case for vibe coding's capabilities.

I began by setting up Claude Code and providing it with the necessary context: "I want to fix a build failure in my Nix configuration. To provide some context, this build does work on another machine, but for whatever reason doesn't work on this machine." I then let Claude run from there, observing its progress as it generated ideas and solutions.

Unfortunately, Claude's first pass at the solution was lacking. The proposed fix was not reproducible on other machines and relied heavily on hard-coding Nix store paths, which is a big no-no in Nix due to the lack of reproducibility. I had to intervene multiple times to steer Claude towards more idiomatic solutions.

However, even with my guidance, Claude struggled to provide a maintainable solution. The proposed fix was brittle and would likely break when upgrading Nixpkgs or other dependencies. This is precisely the kind of issue that vibe coding proponents often overlook: the long-term consequences of using this technology.

I won't bore you with the details of my entire Claude Code session, but I'll highlight some key takeaways. First, Claude's solutions were often poor engineering practices, relying on workarounds rather than addressing the root cause of the problem. Second, the tool seemed to lack a deep understanding of Nix and its ecosystem, leading to suboptimal solutions.

My experience with vibe coding is not an isolated incident. I've tried it multiple times in various domains, and each time I'm left underwhelmed by the results. The promise of vibe coding is that it can "level up" developers working in unfamiliar territories, but my experiences suggest otherwise.

Vibe coding's biggest flaw lies in its inability to recognize and communicate trade-offs, downsides, and implications of generated code. This lack of understanding leads to solutions that may seem good at first glance but ultimately fail under scrutiny.

The actual cause of the build failure was a known issue in Nixpkgs, which has a draft pull request open to address it. A better solution would involve addressing this underlying problem rather than relying on workarounds or hacks.

I'm not alone in my skepticism about vibe coding. Many developers share similar concerns and have reported disappointing experiences with the technology. The author of this blog post is, in fact, someone who has been burned by vibe coding outside their comfort zone.

While I believe that AI can be a powerful tool for improving workflows, vibe coding's current incarnation falls short of its promise. It's time to reevaluate our expectations and recognize the limitations of this technology.

**The Bottom Line**

Vibe coding is not a silver bullet solution that can magically fix software engineering problems. While it has potential, its current state is underwhelming, and I'm skeptical about its ability to improve the quality of my work. If you're considering using vibe coding for your projects, I recommend taking a closer look at its limitations and potential pitfalls.

**Try It Yourself**

Don't just take my word for it! You can run this same experiment yourself by checking out a branch of my Grace repository and asking your favorite vibe coding tool to fix the build failure. This will give you a firsthand experience with vibe coding's capabilities and limitations.