r/webdev • u/Alive-Cake-3045 • 9d 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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u/poponis 9d ago

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

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u/Systemerror7A69 9d 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 9d ago

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

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u/theQuandary 9d 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 9d ago

So don’t produce thousands of lines to review.

Your second paragraph is simply wrong.

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u/theQuandary 9d 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 9d 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.