Master Vibe Coding: Your 3-Step App Development Guide

Collins Dictionary named “vibe coding” their Word of the Year 2025—and it captures something fundamental about what’s possible right now.

Imagine building an app for yourself. For your friends and family. For a business idea you’ve been sitting on. Today, that’s actually possible.

And yes—it’s a journey, not a sprint. It takes practice. You get better with each app you build. There’s no finish line; there’s always something new to learn.

If that appeals to you, here are the 3 steps I’ve used to ship multiple apps. You can follow them too.

This is where most people fail. They get excited about an idea, jump straight into building, and three weeks later realize nobody wanted what they built.

Spend some time brainstorming instead; it could be 30 minutes of 3 days or 3 weeks. Clarity saves hours of wasted development.

Here’s an example of how you could begin a conversation during the brainstorming phase: Open Claude or ChatGPT and start with a prompt like this:

“I’m brainstorming an idea, so don’t write code yet. I want to build a [describe your rough idea]. Help me think through this by:

Let’s iterate until we have a clear picture of what to build.”

Why this matters: You’re not asking the AI to build for you yet. You’re asking it to think with you. The AI asks questions. You answer. It challenges assumptions. You iterate. By the end, you have a clear picture.

This is vibe coding at its best: human creativity + AI collaboration.

During this phase, you might discover you want to build:

The beauty of vibe coding is scope doesn’t matter. You can start small or ambitious. The process is the same.

Pro tip: If the AI starts generating code before you’re ready, remind it: “I’m still in brainstorming. Don’t code yet.” It will reset and go back to asking questions.

There’s more depth to this phase—prompt structure, how to pressure-test ideas, how to define your MVP properly. I cover all of this in detail in my community workshops. But for now, understand this: validate before you build.

Now you have a clear idea. Time to get the tools ready.

You need two things:

Download VS Code from code.visualstudio.com. It’s free. Install it. Open it.

Then integrate Claude Code into VS Code. You can find the extension in the VS Code marketplace. Install it. Connect your Claude account. Done.

If you get stuck, you’re not alone. Setup issues are common, and that’s exactly why I created detailed walkthroughs (coming soon in my community). The best place to get help is where I’m building in public—join my community updates so you don’t miss the setup guides and troubleshooting resources.

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Why VS Code + Claude Code specifically? Because this combination lets you:

There are other platforms—Lovable, Base.ai, Replit—that claim to build apps from descriptions alone. They’re fast. They’re convenient. But they’re also hidden. You describe → they generate → you get a finished app. You never see the steps in between.

My approach is different. It’s slightly slower, but you understand what’s happening. You see the code. You learn why decisions were made. You become a builder, not just a tool user.

That compounds over time.

You have your idea validated. Your environment is set up. Now comes the fun part.

Open Claude Code in VS Code and describe your app. In natural language. No code syntax required.

Something like: “Build a simple task management app. Users should be able to add tasks, mark them complete, and delete them. It should have a clean interface. Deploy it to Railway.”

Claude generates code. You review it. If something’s off, you describe the fix conversationally. Claude adjusts. Iterate until it’s right.

Then deploy. But don’t overthink deployment. Choose a beginner-friendly platform:

Why not traditional servers? Because setting up Linux servers, managing databases, handling SSL certificates—that’s too much friction for day one. Get your app live first. Optimize infrastructure later.

Deploy your imperfect app. Get it on the internet. Share it with friends. Get feedback. That feedback teaches you more than any tutorial.

You could use Lovable or Base.ai and get an app faster. That’s true.

But you wouldn’t understand how it works. You wouldn’t know how to modify it. When something breaks, you’d be stuck.

My approach takes longer because it’s educational. You see each step. You understand the decisions. You learn why things work.

That’s the difference between using a tool and becoming a builder.

And here’s the honest part: it’s a journey. You won’t be an expert after one app. You’ll hit weird bugs. You’ll restart. You’ll learn. You’ll ship your second app faster than your first. Your third app faster than your second.

That’s how skill compounds.

This overview covers the foundation. There’s deeper training available in my community workshops where we dive into:

But you don’t need that to start. You need this: an idea, 30 minutes to validate it, 10 minutes to set up VS Code, and the willingness to iterate.

Everything else you learn along the way.

Collins Dictionary chose “vibe coding” as the word of 2025 because it democratizes building. You don’t need a computer science degree. You don’t need years of experience. You need curiosity and patience.

So pick an idea. Grab those brainstorming prompts. Tell Claude what you want to build. Iterate. Deploy. Ship.

That’s vibe coding. That’s your journey. Let’s go.