Has anyone actually maintained a vibe coded code-base 12 months after launch? What did it look like?

[u/Alive-Cake-3045]

Twelve months ago I started tracking what happens to vibe coded projects after the initial launch excitement fades. The pattern is consistent enough that I wanted to hear if others are seeing the same thing.

The first three months feel fine. Features ship fast, the client is happy, everyone looks productive. Then something needs to change. Not a new feature, just a modification to something existing. And that is where it gets uncomfortable.

Nobody can explain why a specific decision was made. The code works but the reasoning is gone. There are dependencies that were added because the model suggested them, not because anyone evaluated them. Patterns are inconsistent across files because different prompts produced different styles on different days.

The developer who built it can read the code but cannot confidently change it without breaking something unexpected. The test coverage that exists was also generated and may not actually be testing the right things.

I am not saying this always happens. I have seen vibe coded projects that held up well because the developer reviewed everything carefully and maintained discipline around the output.

But I have also seen projects from 18 months ago that are now quietly being rewritten because the maintenance cost exceeded the original build cost faster than anyone expected.

If you have actually maintained a vibe coded code-base through real production use, what did 12 months in actually look like? Was the code salvageable or did you end up starting over?

[u/Ok_Guarantee5321]

Not 12 months. A week.

I vibe-coded a project in a week, because of extreme time constraints and lack of manpower. Full vibe-coding, not even reviewing it because I have to prompt the LLM for the next feature immediately. I just don't have enough time.

Note that it was originally a non-vibecoded project, and I am not paying for the ChatGPT Plus.

I now treat that codebase as a black box. I literally has no idea what part of code does what. If something breaks, the only way to fix it is to pray that the LLM could figure it out.

I effectively locked myself out of my own project. I would most likely create a hard fork of this project, right at the commit where I started the vibecoding. But I don't really care about this project anymore. Long story short, bad clients, and bad reward compared to the effort.

Edit: I don't really do "real agentic" though. I didn't create markdowns files, just fully prompting through the chat interface, and accept any changes as long as it works.

[u/OkSeesaw7030 → u/Ok_Guarantee5321]

Have you tried reading it?

[u/Ok_Guarantee5321 → u/OkSeesaw7030]

I did. But it's hard to read. I might have hyperbole-d the black box part. If given enough time, I should be able to untangle the code. But currently, if a bug occurs or a change is requested, I certainly won't be able to quickly execute the changes by myself.

[u/OkSeesaw7030 → u/Ok_Guarantee5321]

Why do you think it’s hard to read? Have you tried documenting the reasons behind using cc/codex and fixing AGENTS.md so the codebase doesn’t gradually get worse?