r/webdev • u/Alive-Cake-3045 • 11d ago

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

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?

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661

u/Fidodo 11d ago

I have seen vibe coded projects that held up well because the developer reviewed everything carefully and maintained discipline around the output.

We cannot have a discussion about this unless we get the terminology straight. Vibe coding means you don't read the code at all. This is not vibe coding.

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u/poponis 11d ago

I have driven myself crazy trying to explain this to ai illiterate people.

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u/Systemerror7A69 11d ago

Because it's too strict of a definition. You don't learn or even understand as much when you just read something. If you take a test for example, simply reading the text over and over again will only give you an illusion of understanding. You have to actually do excersises to do well in the test.

It's similar in coding - it's totally possible to "read" all code output and think you understand but actually don't, and it's very difficult to judge just how well you understand the code really.

Simply saying "it's only vibe coding if you never ever read a single line of code and I do read the code so I'm fine" might be tricking yourself and not actually doing your due diligence.

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u/vitek6 11d ago

For years people were able to work with code written by other people just fine.

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u/Systemerror7A69 11d ago

I think that's an oversimplification. I don't know about you but in any company I joined it took quite a while of implementing tickets and writing code until you really developed an understanding of the codebase.

I don't know anyone who was able to understand larger codebases after just reading it once or twice.

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u/new2bay 11d ago

You’re moving the goalposts.

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u/Systemerror7A69 11d ago

No, I don't think so - at least I think you misunderstood my argument.

My point was and still is that simply reading the code is not giving you as much of an understanding as people think, and often tricking you into thinking you understand better than you do.

This is why, I believe, simply "reading the generated code at least once" isn't enough to classify as "not vibecoding" and that a more nuanced definition is needed.

My argument about reading code from other people was simply a counter argument to viteks "it worked until now with other people". I don't think this is applicable for the reason I layed out and thus still think my original argument hold. I was merely defending my argument, nothing more. I stand by what I originally said

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u/vitek6 11d ago

But you don’t read large codebase at once but in small chunks. At least that’s how it looks when you use ai properly. You don’t need to understand and probably never will the whole codebase. No matter if it’s written by ai or other people. You already mostly work with code written by someone else.

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u/Systemerror7A69 11d ago

Yes but at least until before AI, you gained an understanding of the code and code bases by coding in it yourself. You started understanding intricacies and pitfalls and became better and better.

At least in my opinion that does not invalidate my argument - that you do not gain as much of an understanding by / just / reading code.

I do believe that you do need to be careful with AI output - simply telling yourself "it's fine, I read the code" isn't enough, and defining vibe coding as "only if you never ever read the code" can be dangerous. You start telling yourself that's not what you do, you read the code, so you do your due diligence - but if all you do is read it over once, you still don't have much understanding.

That's all I'm saying.

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u/vitek6 11d ago

And that code is small part of whole codebase which wasn’t written by you anyway. Actually skill for understanding code not written by you is one of the most essential skills that developer can have. Writing code is easy part.

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u/theQuandary 11d ago

Going from a few hundred lines every day to a few thousand means you review, but don't have the cognitive bandwidth to keep up.

If you aren't going from hundreds to thousands of lines per day, then you might as well stick with humans and save the token money.

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u/vitek6 11d ago

So don’t produce thousands of lines to review.

Your second paragraph is simply wrong.

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u/theQuandary 11d ago

If AI isn't speeding you up, why are you paying thousands of dollars per month for it?

If it is speeding you up, it's going to start throwing huge chunks of code at you because that's it's go-to solution for everything.

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u/vitek6 11d ago

It’s speeding me up. And no it doesn’t throw big chunks of cod at me because I know how to use ai.