Analyzes code snippets, functions, or entire files, providing clear, structured explanations of what each function does, its parameters, and potential edge cases. Use when reviewing code, onboarding to a new codebase, or documenting complex logic.
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From idea to live
Building with an AI coding agent is fast. Shipping something people can rely on takes a few habits most guides skip. Here are the nine stages every vibe-coded project goes through, what tends to go wrong at each one, and the skills that help your agent get it right.
Stage 0
What is vibe coding
What it means
Vibe coding means describing what you want in plain language and letting an AI coding agent write the code.
It is great for getting from idea to a working first version fast. Where it struggles is everything around the code: saving working versions, keeping secrets safe, testing, and going live.
The AI writes the code, but you own the result. vibe.md gives your agent the habits engineers use for the parts it tends to skip.
What usually goes wrong
It worked an hour ago. A few prompts later it doesn't, there is no saved copy to go back to, and every prompt spent asking the AI to rebuild what you had costs time and money.
What to do
- Expect the AI to be fast, not careful.
- Decide which parts you will check yourself.
- Add skills so your agent follows a safe process for you.
Stage 1
Before you start
What it means
A clear start saves hours later. Pick one coding agent and a popular stack, so your agent has seen it many times.
Describe the idea in a few plain sentences: who it is for, what the first version must do, and what can wait.
What usually goes wrong
Asking for "an app like Airbnb" in one prompt. The agent builds a huge, half-working project that nobody, including the agent, fully understands.
What to do
- Choose one agent: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot.
- Pick a popular stack your agent knows well.
- Write the idea in three to five sentences.
- Start with the smallest version that is useful.
- Create the accounts you'll need: GitHub, and later a hosting provider.
Skills that help
Stage 2
Save your work
What it means
Git saves your project at points you choose, like save points in a game. If a change goes wrong, you go back to the last good save instead of starting over.
GitHub keeps a copy of those saves online, so a lost laptop does not mean lost work.
What usually goes wrong
A prompt "fixes" one feature and quietly breaks three others. Without a saved version, the only way back is asking the AI to undo, and it rarely returns the original.
What to do
- Save a version every time something works.
- Back up to GitHub.
- Try risky ideas on a separate branch.
- Read what changed before you save.
Skills that help
Gitly
Package · 12 skillsGit and GitHub workflows made accessible to Vibe Coders. Spend less time recovering lost changes and more time building.
Helps developers understand, investigate, and safely resolve Git merge conflicts, rebase conflicts, cherry-pick conflicts, and competing changes across branches. Use when Git reports merge conflicts or when a developer needs help reconciling conflicting file changes.
Provides interactive planning and strategic workflow design for branching, commit scoping, and logical task segmentation. Use this skill when planning how to organize work before executing actions with gitly-save, gitly-branches, or gitly-sync.
Stage 3
Build without breaking
What it means
As the project grows, every change can break something you are not looking at.
Tests and simple checks catch that before your users do, and clean, reused code keeps the project easy for your agent to change.
What usually goes wrong
The frontend sends a field called userName while the backend expects username. Everything looks fine until a real user signs up and nothing is saved.
What to do
- Ask your agent to write a test before it changes a feature.
- Check that the frontend and backend agree on every request.
- Reuse existing helpers instead of adding copies.
- Keep files and names readable.
Skills that help
Enforces Test-First (TDD) workflow for React components using React Testing Library. Use when building or changing React UI, components, forms, or pages. Always write tests before implementation code. When tests fail, stop and discuss with the user whether to fix the code or update the tests.
Compare frontend API requests and consumers with backend routes to find mismatches in methods, paths, field names, response shapes, and error handling. Use for API integration reviews and debugging frontend/backend contract incompatibilities; report exact mismatches with file references.
Keeps AI-written code real, used, and written once. Checks for an existing helper before creating a new one, verifies every third-party API against the installed version before using it, and cleans up code the change left orphaned. Use when adding functions, hooks, components, or utilities; when calling or upgrading a third-party package or editing framework config; after finishing a feature or abandoning an approach; or when an error says something is undefined, not a function, not exported, or an unknown option.
Improves the readability, formatting, and structure of text, documentation, and markdown files. Use when the user asks to clean up text, improve clarity, or structure documentation.
Identifies hard-coded or overly specific functions, components, or utilities in the codebase and refactors them into clean, reusable, parameter-driven abstractions. Use when cleaning up code, improving reusability, or abstracting repetitive implementations.
Stage 4
Keep secrets secret
What it means
API keys and passwords give access to your accounts and your money. They belong in environment variables, such as a .env file that is never uploaded.
Once a key reaches GitHub, assume someone has copied it.
What usually goes wrong
An API key pasted into the code is pushed to a public GitHub repository. Within hours, automated scanners find it and run up a bill on your account.
What to do
- Keep keys in a .env file and list it in .gitignore.
- Check changes for secrets before you save or push.
- If a key leaks, revoke it and create a new one.
- Review security before you share your app.
Skills that help
Keeps credentials out of the repository by checking configuration files and staged changes for secrets before they are saved or pushed. Use when a project starts using API keys, tokens, or service credentials, before the first commit, and whenever configuration or authentication files change.
Reviews staged, changed, and new files for security vulnerabilities such as injection, unsafe deserialization, missing validation, broken access control, and sensitive data in logs, then explains each finding and how to fix it. Use before committing or pushing, or when the user asks whether their changes are safe.
Security
Package · 3 skillsAI application security reviews and local access-control regression tests.
Google services
Package · 9 skillsUnofficial. Add Google login, maps, Firebase, analytics, Search Console, Sheets and Gemini to your site, with restricted keys and budget alerts.
Stage 5
Data
What it means
Your users' data is the one thing you cannot regenerate with a prompt.
Changes to a database's structure, called migrations, should be reversible and checked before they run.
What usually goes wrong
The agent renames a column by deleting it and adding a new one. The app works, and every existing value in that column is gone.
What to do
- Back up before any database change.
- Make every change reversible.
- Try it on a copy before production.
Skills that help
Plans and reviews database schema changes so they are reversible, verified, and never silently destructive. Use when the user asks to add, change, or remove tables or columns, when a migration fails partway, or before running pending migrations in a production or shared environment.
- Database trackComing soon
Stage 6
Go live
What it means
Going live means putting your app on a server so others can use it, usually through a hosting provider.
You will set environment variables there, connect a domain, and keep an eye on costs.
What usually goes wrong
The app works on your computer but not online, because the hosting provider has none of the environment variables from your .env file.
What to do
- Choose a hosting provider that supports your stack.
- Set the environment variables there, not in the code.
- Connect your domain.
- Set a spending limit or alert.
Skills that help
Deploy
Package · 8 skillsTake a site from "works on my computer" to a checked public web address, in plain language and with your approval at every step that matters.
Analyzes project dependencies to generate Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml. Use when the user asks to deploy, dockerize, or put the app on a server.
Stage 7
After launch
What it means
Launch is the start, not the end. You will ship updates, keep backups, and watch for problems.
If your app uses an AI model, its answers can change when you edit a prompt or switch models, so measure them instead of guessing.
What usually goes wrong
A small prompt change makes the app's AI feature give worse answers for a week before anyone notices.
What to do
- Ship small updates, one at a time.
- Keep backups of your data.
- Test AI features with a fixed set of examples before each change.
Skills that help
LLM Engineering
Package · 3 skillsPractical skills for building and checking features that use language models.
Stage 8
Give back
What it means
Everything on vibe.md is open source. If you found a process that works, you can share it as a skill.
On GitHub you copy the project (a fork), make your change on a branch, and ask to add it with a pull request. The maintainers review it. Before you open it, your agent can run the skill contribution check to catch common problems.
What usually goes wrong
A great workflow lives only in one chat history and is lost when the session ends.
What to do
- Notice steps you repeat in every project.
- Write them as a skill: one folder with a SKILL.md.
- Open a pull request to vibe.md.
Skills that help
Looks back over the current conversation at the end of a session and proposes reusable skills from repeated steps, corrections, and conventions the user taught. Use when a session is wrapping up or when the user asks what from this chat could become a skill.
Skill contribution check
Contributor toolBefore you open a pull request, your agent reads the repo's rules, runs the validator and tests, and tells you Ready or Not ready yet with what to fix.
Not a catalog skill. You don't install it.
Words you will meet
Glossary
- Repo
- A project folder that Git tracks, often with a copy on GitHub.
- Commit
- A saved version of your project, with a short note on what changed.
- Branch
- A separate line of work where you can try changes without touching the main version.
- Fork
- Your own copy of someone else's repo on GitHub.
- Pull request
- A request to add your changes to a repo, where others can review them first.
- Deploy
- Putting your app on a server so other people can use it.
- Environment variable
- A setting such as an API key, kept outside your code, often in a .env file.
- Domain
- Your app's address on the web, such as example.com.
- Agent
- An AI coding assistant that reads and changes your project, such as Claude Code or Cursor.
- Skill
- A SKILL.md file of instructions that teaches your agent one job, such as saving a version safely.
- Package
- A group of related skills you install together, such as Gitly.
Questions
FAQ
Is it safe?
Skills are plain text instructions you can read before you install them, and the source of every skill is on GitHub. Each skill page links to its SKILL.md, and many describe what the skill can change and what it will not do.
Does it cost money?
vibe.md and its skills are free and open source. Your coding agent, hosting provider and any AI models your app uses may have their own costs.
Which agents does it work with?
Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI and GitHub Copilot. Each skill page shows how to install it for your agent.
What if I break something?
Save your work with Git first. Then you can always return to the last version that worked, and skills like Gitly help your agent do that safely.