# Learn Vibe Coding 101: Build Apps by Talking to AI | We Call Shotgun > You don't need to learn programming to build apps anymore. Vibe coding lets you create working software by describing what you want. Here's how to start. Source: https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/learn-vibe-coding-101 Language: en --- [Your Spicy Advisory becomes We Call Shotgun!Read the story →](https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/spicy-advisory-is-now-we-call-shotgun) [HOME](https://wecallshotgun.com/) [ABOUT US](https://wecallshotgun.com/about) [REVIEWS](https://wecallshotgun.com/reviews) [BLOG](https://wecallshotgun.com/blog) [Book a Call](https://cal.com/wecallshotgun/ai-adoption) AI Tools # Learn Vibe Coding 101: Build Apps by Talking to AI By [Toni Dos Santos](https://wecallshotgun.com/about) • May 25, 2025 • 8 min read SummaryYou don't need to learn programming to build apps anymore. Vibe coding lets you create working software by describing what you want. Here's how to start. A year ago, if you wanted to build an app, you needed to learn to code — or hire someone who could. That's no longer true. **Vibe coding** is the practice of building software by describing what you want in plain English (or any language) and letting AI generate the code. You focus on *what* the app should do. The AI handles *how*. And it's not just for toy projects. People are building real tools, internal dashboards, Chrome extensions, and even SaaS products this way. ## How Vibe Coding Works The loop is simple: - **Describe** what you want ("Build me a dashboard that shows our MRR from Stripe data") - **AI generates** the code - **You test** it — does it work? Does it look right? - **You refine** — "Make the chart blue, add a date filter, show month-over-month growth" - **Repeat** until it's done That's it. No syntax to memorize. No Stack Overflow rabbit holes. You're having a conversation, and software comes out the other end. ## The Best Tools for Vibe Coding ### Cursor — The Power User's Choice Cursor is a code editor (based on VS Code) with AI built directly into it. You can select code and ask it to modify, explain, or debug it. You can describe a new feature and it writes the code in context. **Best for:** People comfortable looking at code (even if they can't write it). Gives you the most control and produces the most robust results. ### Replit — The All-in-One Platform Replit gives you a browser-based development environment with an AI agent that can build entire apps from a description. No setup, no installation, no configuration. **Best for:** True beginners. You can go from zero to a deployed app without ever touching your terminal. ### v0 by Vercel — The UI Specialist v0 is laser-focused on generating frontend user interfaces. Describe a component ("a pricing table with three tiers and a toggle for monthly/annual") and it generates production-ready React code. **Best for:** Creating UI components and landing pages. Incredible speed for visual work. ### Bolt.new — The Rapid Prototyper Bolt lets you prompt a full-stack application and see it running immediately in your browser. It's the fastest way to go from idea to working prototype. **Best for:** Quick prototyping, hackathon-style building, and validating ideas before investing serious time. ## A Real Example: Building a Feedback Tracker Let me walk you through a real vibe coding session. Goal: build a simple tool where our team can submit and track customer feedback. **Prompt 1:** "Build me a web app for tracking customer feedback. It should have a form to submit feedback with fields for customer name, feedback text, category (bug, feature request, praise), and priority (low, medium, high). Show all feedback in a sortable table below the form." In Replit or Bolt, this generates a working app in about 30 seconds. It's not pretty, but it functions. **Prompt 2:** "Make it look professional. Use a clean, modern design with a white background. Add a header that says 'Feedback Tracker'. Make the table sortable by clicking column headers." Now it looks good. Maybe 2 minutes total. **Prompt 3:** "Add a filter bar above the table so I can filter by category and priority. Also add a count showing total feedback items and breakdown by category." Three prompts. Maybe 5 minutes total. You have a working internal tool. ## When Vibe Coding Works (and When It Doesn't) **Great for:** - Internal tools and dashboards - Prototypes and MVPs - Personal productivity tools - Landing pages and marketing sites - Data visualization and simple analytics - Chrome extensions and browser tools **Not great for (yet):** - Complex systems with many interconnected parts - High-security applications (banking, healthcare) - Performance-critical software - Large-scale production systems ## Tips for Better Results - **Be specific.** "A dashboard" is vague. "A dashboard showing MRR, churn rate, and new signups from the last 30 days with line charts" gets much better results. - **Iterate in small steps.** Don't describe the entire app at once. Build feature by feature. - **Describe the user experience.** "When I click a row, it should expand to show details" is better than "add expandable rows." - **Save working versions.** Before asking for a big change, make sure you can go back if things break. - **Learn to read errors.** You don't need to write code, but being able to paste an error message and say "fix this" is essential. ## Start Building Here's my challenge to you: think of one tool or app you wish existed for your team. Something simple — a tracker, a calculator, a dashboard. Open Replit or Bolt. Describe it. See what happens. You'll be amazed at what you can build in an afternoon. The barrier to creating software has never been lower. The only question is: what will you build? ## Keep Reading [AI Tools Aug 23, 2026 ### CBI Adoption Decade Report: The AI Execution Divide Is a People Problem The CBI, with Oliver Wyman, has asked the UK government to make the next ten years an “adoption decade”. The headline number is a 49% vs 15% ROI gap between AI deployment leaders and laggards buying the same technology. Here is our perspective on why that gap is behavioural, and what to do about it in 90 days. 14 min read Read →](https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/cbi-adoption-decade-ai-execution-divide) [AI Tools Aug 17, 2026 ### AI Adoption Training: Why Most AI Projects Fail After Go-Live (UK Guide 2026) AI adoption training is the discipline most AI projects skip: workflow-first enablement that turns paid licences into changed daily work. Why projects die at the handover cliff, what a real programme contains, the day-90 test, who actually sells it in the UK, and what it costs. 7 min read Read →](https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/ai-adoption-training-uk) [AI Tools Aug 17, 2026 ### AI Advisory vs Implementation vs Training: Which AI Partner Do You Actually Need? Advisory produces decisions, implementation produces systems, training produces changed behaviour — three different purchases that firms blur to sell their own lane. A symptom table to self-diagnose, the sequence that inverts in 2026, and what each lane should cost in the UK. 6 min read Read →](https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/ai-advisory-vs-implementation-vs-training) ## Related AI Training Solutions Programs tailored to your role, industry, or function. 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