Vibe Coding vs Agentic AI: A Tale of Two Workflows

What Even Is Vibe Coding?

Let's start with vibe coding, the ancient art of writing code based on feelings, intuition, and whatever Stack Overflow answer has the most upvotes.

Vibe coding is when you:

• Start typing before you fully understand the problem
• Name variables based on the first thing that comes to mind (temp, data2, theThing)
• Fix bugs by adding console.log statements until something makes sense
• Commit with messages like "fixed it" or "please work"
• Refuse to read documentation because "I'll figure it out"

Vibe coding is not a methodology. It's a lifestyle. It's putting on lo-fi beats, opening your IDE, and trusting that the code will flow through you like some kind of caffeinated force.

// I don't know why this works but it does
// DO NOT TOUCH
function processData(x) {
    return x && x.map ? x.map(i => i?.value ?? i) : [x];
}
// Added on Friday at 11:47 PM

Enter Agentic AI: Your New Robot Coworker

Agentic AI is the opposite energy. It's when you give an AI system a goal, and it autonomously figures out how to achieve it. No hand-holding. No line-by-line prompting. You say "build me a todo app" and it goes off, creates files, writes tests, fixes its own bugs, and comes back 3 minutes later asking if you want dark mode.

Tools like Cursor Agent, Devin, Claude with computer use, and AutoGPT represent this new wave. They don't just suggest code, they execute entire workflows.

Agentic AI is when:

• You describe a feature in plain English
• The AI reads your codebase, understands your patterns, and writes code that actually fits
• It creates files, runs commands, fixes errors, and iterates on its own work
• You come back from making tea and there are 47 new files in your project
• Half of them are actually good

You: "Add user authentication to my app"

AI: *creates 12 files*
    *sets up JWT tokens*
    *adds middleware*
    *creates login/signup pages*
    *writes tests*
    *updates README*
    *adds environment variables*
    *refactors your entire user model*
    *changes your database schema*
    *sends you a PR*

You: "I just wanted a password field"

The Head-to-Head Comparison

Real Examples: Same Task, Different Approaches

Task: Add a Dark Mode Toggle

// Step 1: Add a button somewhere
<button onclick="document.body.classList.toggle('dark')">
  Dark Mode
</button>

// Step 2: Add some CSS
.dark { background: black; color: white; }

// Step 3: Realize nothing else changed
// Step 4: Add !important to everything
// Step 5: Give up and ship it
// Step 6: Users complain the button doesn't persist
// Step 7: Google "localStorage tutorial"
// Step 8: It's 2 AM now

Time: 3 hours
Files changed: 2
Satisfaction: Medium
Understanding: 100%

You: "Add dark mode to my app"

AI: "I'll analyze your codebase and implement dark mode..."

*5 minutes later*

Created:
- ThemeContext.tsx (React context for theme state)
- useTheme.ts (custom hook)
- ThemeToggle.tsx (animated toggle component)
- theme.css (CSS variables for both themes)
- Updated 23 components to use CSS variables
- Added system preference detection
- Persists to localStorage
- Syncs across tabs
- Added to user settings page
- Created Storybook story for toggle
- Added unit tests
- Updated README

You: "My app was vanilla HTML/CSS"
AI: "I've also migrated you to React"

Time: 5 minutes
Files changed: 31
Satisfaction: ???
Understanding: 12%

Task: Fix a Bug Where Users Can't Log In

// Day 1
console.log("login function called")
console.log("user:", user)
console.log("password:", password) // oops, logged password
console.log("response:", response)
// Response is undefined. Why?

// Day 1, Hour 3
// Found it. Missing await.
// The fix:
- const response = fetch('/api/login')
+ const response = await fetch('/api/login')

// Commit: "fix login"
// Time: 3 hours
// Learned: async/await still confuses me

You: "Users can't log in, please fix"

AI: "I'll investigate the login flow..."

*reads 47 files*
*runs the app*
*attempts login*
*checks network tab*
*reads server logs*
*finds the missing await*
*also finds 3 other issues you didn't know about*
*refactors auth to use a more secure pattern*
*adds rate limiting*
*implements account lockout*
*adds 2FA because "it was easy to add"*
*updates all tests*
*creates a security audit document*

You: "I just needed the await"
AI: "You're welcome"

Time: 8 minutes
Files changed: 19
Security: Improved (probably)
Original bug: Fixed
New bugs: TBD

When to Use Which

Use Vibe Coding When:

• You're prototyping and need to move fast
• The project is small and you're the only developer
• You want to actually learn something
• You don't trust AI with your spaghetti code (fair)
• It's a hackathon and "working" is the only requirement
• You have strong opinions about how things should be done

Use Agentic AI When:

• You need to scaffold a lot of boilerplate fast
• You're working in an unfamiliar codebase or language
• The task is well-defined and relatively standard
• You're okay reviewing AI-generated code carefully
• Time matters more than understanding every line
• You want to feel like you have a junior developer who never sleeps

The Hybrid Approach (What I Actually Do)

Here's the secret: the best developers in 2025 do both. The workflow looks something like this:

• Start with vibes: Sketch out the architecture in your head. Decide what you actually want.
• Let AI do the boring stuff: Boilerplate, tests, types, documentation. The stuff you'd procrastinate on anyway.
• Review everything: AI writes code like a confident intern. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes confidently wrong.
• Vibe code the tricky parts: Complex logic, edge cases, anything that requires understanding your specific domain.
• Use AI to refactor: Once it works, let AI clean it up. It's better at following style guides than you are.

The goal isn't to replace your brain with AI. It's to use AI for the parts that don't need your brain, so you can focus on the parts that do.

The Dangers of Each

Vibe Coding Dangers:

• Technical debt that would make your future self cry
• Security vulnerabilities because "I'll fix it later"
• Code that only works because of three unrelated bugs canceling each other out
• The classic "it works, don't touch it" situation

Agentic AI Dangers:

• You ship code you don't understand
• AI confidently implements the wrong thing perfectly
• Dependency bloat (AI loves adding packages)
• You become a code reviewer instead of a code writer
• The AI "fixes" something that wasn't broken
• You lose the skill of actually writing code

Final Thoughts

Vibe coding is an art. Agentic AI is a power tool. Both can create beautiful things. Both can create absolute disasters.

The developers who thrive in 2025 and beyond are the ones who know when to trust their instincts and when to let the robots help. They review AI code with skepticism, they vibe code with discipline (sometimes), and they always, always test in production. (Kidding. Mostly.)

Whatever your approach, just remember: the code that ships is better than the code that's perfect. And if you can ship faster by letting an AI write your boilerplate while you focus on the hard problems? That's not cheating. That's just good engineering.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go review the 47 files my AI agent just created while I wrote this article.

Happy coding, however you do it.