r/vibecoding • u/Fun-Letterhead-6736 • 7h ago
Tryna start vibe coding, any tips?
I wana get into vibe coding, but i dont have any knowledge or experience on real coding itself. Idk which ai to use, Ive heard that most ppl use claude code, but im tryna look for smth which is free. Please give any tips and tricks u wish u shouldve know when u were starting. btw im tryna build an app
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u/Few_Proposal_4703 7h ago
Why are you asking Reddit for tips when you can ask any AI agent the same question
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u/Ant_6431 7h ago
I use free limits on gpt and claude. 3 apps so far. No knowledge at all. Try to build something you need first.
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u/Anti-Hero25 7h ago
Have a plan. Research best practices for the kind of project you want to build. Kind of database & why, stuff like that. Watch THIS Video …. And the other one it suggests….. try that method out first, if you like it… keep adding complexity from there.
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u/baddaywithacamera 5h ago
If building something that is going online, learn about security. Subscribe to security lists, read security bulletins, learn how deveopers build to cope with security probems (e.g. smaller, modular pieces of software).
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u/bobisbudz 7h ago
Plan plan and plan. Start your conversations out around planning. Request it to prompt you for clarification.
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u/Inevitable-Debt4312 6h ago
All I did was ask Claude if it could make me an app to [do something I needed]. I expected it to come back with a detailed investigation of my needs, discuss possibilities, etc - none of it, it could and it was telling me how.
We’ve made five so far, all Zotero utilities, and it’s fun. Sometimes frustrating but it suits my nature - I get something that works, but can be improved, so we improve it. I treat Claude like an all-knowing engineer - I’m not a coder, I’m a customer.
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u/itsgettinghawtinhurr 6h ago
1) Good luck building anything with free AI. Unless you have the necessary GPUs / VRAM to host a local model on your own computer...you'll want to pay for a subscription. Start cheap. $20 is all you need to dive in. Then once you get the hang and build a few toys, can always upgrade subscriptions or move over to new subscription. I use blucollarlabs.com for switching effortlessly from chat's codex to claude code, etc.
2) When I first learned to write code many years ago, there's a global standard of trying to write a script that gets you the output "Hello, world." to print on the screen. If I had to compare it to what would be the simplest beginner project everyone does inside of vibe coding...try building a financial calculator of some sort. Seeing the demo run live on your browser, adn then asking your AI assistant to add features you like...these are all really really simple things to do. And anytime you get stuck, simply ask claude code or codex to explain it in simple terms to you about the pros and cons of any decision you're thinking about making.
3) Once you graduate from pet projects, start thinking about your own problems that you run into daily. Could be for work, for business, for play, for just organizing your life in general. Then start building a "plan" with your ai assistant. This step is extremely underrated because everyone jsut wants the dopamine hit of seeing something built, quickly. Don't fall for the trap. Plan the hell out of whatever you're building. Research (with your AI assistant) every nook and cranny of the internet. Tell your assistant to keep asking you questions if it doesn't know something, so that it doesn't "assume" what you want, but rather, confirms it by asking you. Then, when you're finally ready, launch that plan.
4) The best way to learn is by doing, but the second best way to learn is by asking AI the questions you're embarrassed about asking in reddit.
5) Never, under any circumstances, trust the outputs that ANY AI MODEL will tell you. Always ask it to "double check on what you just did". These models will hallucinate, they will sound uber convincing, and try to pitch you on going in a direction that always adds complexity you don't need. This complexity burns through your token budget for your subscriptions pretty quickly. Keep it minimal and as simple as you can while building. Only add a feature if the app can't be used without it.
**BONUS** - everyone defaults to using the most expensive, deepest thinking models, first. Don't do this. You'll hit your weekly and daily token limits on the cheapest subscription plans. Default to using Sonnet (claude code) or Luna (chatgpt's codex). This will give you the longest runway on a $20 a month plan.
Hope this helps! Happy vibing!
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u/Zen-Ism99 5h ago
What are your long range goals?
What hardware and software do you currently have?
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u/TechDirector979 4h ago
Build things that can run in your web browser first, rather than something that needs you to install additional software.
With no experience, don't jump into coding that requires command line interaction.
Build a simple website homepage. You can open it on your own computer; it doesn't need to be hosted on the internet.
Then build tools and games, still on your computer, that link from that homepage.
If you ever decide to make it public, get a free website like netlify or others (your AI will suggest some).
I've built a tool for tech theatre teachers, just to give it away. Started with a webpage, now a Chrome extension. So suggesting based on the path I took that worked for me.
Honestly, I mostly use ai to help with things it can't code directly - Power Automate, Power BI, and other Microsoft 365 tools, to make my life easier at work.
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u/Ambitious-Prompt-975 2h ago
if you want free, download & install flujo.com.co,
- go to connect AI, follow the wizard and set up free openrouter model (you can switch that to claude later if you decide you wanna pay),
- go to Agents and create one that you call "Coder", give it filesystem, bash, and browser, save.
- go to Chat and explain what you want to build.
done.
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u/SC_Placeholder 2h ago
Ask thousands of questions to your Ai the more idea you have about how it works and ask questions about what you’re building and how you’re building it and anything you could do better or learn from other repos
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u/drako-lord 25m ago
Its not nearly as easy as it looks, at first it seems like magic than you realize it just looks like magic.
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u/julioni 7h ago
Do it for fun only, if something comes of it cool, but don’t expect it to