The 12 Steps to Real Vibe Coding

You Tried the Easy Way. Now Let’s Do It Right.

You signed up for an all-in-one vibe coding tool. Maybe Lovable. Maybe Replit or Bolt. You typed in what you wanted, got something impressive the somewhat worked. Then you hit a wall. And no amount of prompting could fix the mess you were in

I’ve been there.

And I’ve watched hundreds of people on Reddit go through the same cycle.

The good news? There’s a clear path forward. It’s not complicated, but it does require you to slow down and build on solid ground.

Step 1: Know What You’re Getting Into

This is a highly technical process. You’re building a web app.

There are many links in that chain. If you’ve never done this before, you’re going to discover how many things you don’t know. That’s fine. But walk into it with your eyes open.

Step 2: Accept That You’ll Outgrow the All-in-One Tools

Lovable. Replit. Bolt. Base44. They’re great, they can get you far. And some people have even built useful tools with them. But for most of us, sooner than you think, they’ll hold you back.

These tools hide the complexity from you. Which feels great until you need to do something they don’t support. And that moment always comes.

Step 3: Write a Foundational Spec Before You Build Anything

This is the step most people skip or don’t know about. It’s also the reason most people fail.

A foundational spec is a clear, detailed document that describes what your app does. Keep it simple enough so you can understand it.

" The main problem isn't your tools. It's that you started building before you finished thinking. "

Since you’re vibe coding and reading this, you’ve probably never written a spec.

That’s okay.

Dump your thoughts into your voice recorder app, transcribe and chat with an AI about it. Paste the finished document into Notion or Google docs and edit it. No more that 3 pages.

Step 4: Learn to Use GitHub

GitHub is where your code lives. Period.

Sign up for a free account. Create your first repository (that’s just a folder for your project). Set it to private so nobody’s poking around your early experiments. Yes, it requires two-factor authentication. Set it up and move on.

Step 5: Understand Branches

You don’t need to become a Git expert. But you need to understand this one concept:

• Your main branch (sometimes called master) is where your working app lives.
• When you want to add a new feature, you create a new branch, build it there, and test it.
• Only after it works do you merge it back into main.

This saves you hours of frustration. Without branches, you’re working directly on the thing that’s working right. When you or your AI break it, you won’t know how or why.

Step 6: Commit to Your Desktop or Laptop

You need file management and a terminal. That means a real computer, not your phone.

If you struggle with file management (knowing where files are, how folders work, how to navigate), fix that first.

Step 7: Get Comfortable With the Terminal

On a PC, that’s CMD or PowerShell. You don’t need to go deep. Know how to open it, run a command, and copy & paste.

Then install Claude Code on your computer. A few things you’ll need:

• Administrator mode: open your terminal as administrator to install
• Node.js: required for Claude Code to run
• Git Bash: if you’re on a PC
• At least the Pro version of Claude

Step 8: Set Up Your Repo and Clone It

Here’s the sequence:

1. Create a GitHub repo
2. Add your foundational spec document to it
3. Install GitHub Desktop (just watch a quick video on how to use it)
4. Clone that repo to your PC

This gets your project files from the cloud onto your local machine where you can actually work with them.

Step 9: Let Claude Code Read Your Spec and Build a Plan

Start Claude Code.

Tell it to navigate to your repository and read your foundational spec.

Then ask it to write a plan to build your web app with you. The plan is the hardest part of the entire process and the most important.

Step 10: Answer the Hard Questions First

If you’ve added the Project Protocol doc, Claude Code will ask you a bunch of questions. This is “Phase 0”.

Its goal is to eliminate gray areas. No “we’ll figure it out later.” Every unclear decision you skip now becomes a problem or a rebuild of large parts of your code later.

Step 11: Preview Your App Locally

You’ve done the work. Now you want to see it.

Ask Claude Code to set up a local server. There you can preview your app at localhost in your web browser. When you get further along, you’ll want separate ports. One for your main branch and one for whatever feature branch you’re developing on.

Step 12: Happy Building

That’s it. You’ve got the foundation. You’ve got the tools.

Now go build something.

There’s a reason Solomon put it in that order. Fields first, then the house. Preparation before construction. The outdoor work, the unglamorous stuff nobody sees, comes before the thing you actually want to build.

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” — Proverbs 21:5

Most people who fail at vibe coding don’t fail because the tools are good or bad.

They fail because they rushed past the preparation. They wanted the house without the fieldwork. Don’t be that person.

Do the boring stuff. Ask the hard questions. Write the spec. Set up the repo.

Further Learning

• Cooking with Claude Code: The Complete Tutorial & Guide →
• An Intro to Git and GitHub for Beginners →