Vibe Coding for Dummies: Every Word Explained Simply
Vibe coding in one line: you tell an AI what you want, it writes the program, you try it and say what to change. The only hard part is the words people throw around, so here are the 14 you will meet first, explained with a kitchen.
This is a plain-words page of our own and has nothing to do with any book series.
What do all these words mean?
Picture a restaurant. You are the owner who cannot cook. The AI is the cook. You taste everything and decide what goes on the menu.
| Word | What it means | In the kitchen |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt | What you tell the AI | Your order to the cook |
| Code | Instructions a computer follows | The recipe |
| Bug | Something that does not work as you meant | Salt where the sugar should be |
| Run | Start the program | Switch on the oven |
| File | One saved document | One recipe card |
| Repo | A project folder with all its files | The recipe box |
| Git | A tool that keeps every saved version | A photo of the dish before each change |
| Terminal | A window where you type orders to your computer | The hatch to the kitchen |
| Editor | A program for working on code, often with AI built in | The workbench |
| Agent | An AI that takes several steps by itself | A cook who shops, cooks and tastes without asking |
| Context | What the AI has in front of it right now | What is on the counter |
| Token | A small unit for counting how much an AI reads and writes | Items on the bill |
| Deploy | Put your program on the internet | Open the doors to guests |
| MCP | A standard plug that gives your AI extra knowledge or tools | A shelf of cookbooks within the cook's reach |
An API key is a secret password for a paid service. Treat it like the key to the till. The MCP guide explains the plug.
What is my AI really telling me?
AI tools and programmers talk in shorthand. Three sentences you may see while building an invented game about sorting socks by colour:
"I added a null check in the save handler." The game crashed when there was nothing saved yet. Now it looks first.
"This is a race condition." Two things happened at nearly the same moment, and the result depended on which came first. A sock got counted twice because it landed while the basket was being emptied.
"That should work now." The AI thinks it is fixed. "Should" is a guess, so try it yourself.
What do I need to remember?
Three things:
- You are the one who tastes. The AI cannot tell whether your game is fun, so play it.
- Take a photo before you change the dish. Save a working version before each new idea.
- Ask for a drawing before the cooking. Boxes and arrows show you what the AI plans, before it builds the wrong thing.
When you are ready, build your first game in an hour.
Paste this to your AI
I am building a game that sorts socks by colour, and I do not know any programming words.
For the rest of this chat:
1. Use plain words. If you need a technical word, explain it in one short sentence the first time.
2. Before each change, say in one sentence what will look or act differently on my screen.
3. After each change, tell me what you did and where in the game I can see it.
4. If you tell me something works, say how you know. If you only believe it works, say "I think". If you have no way of knowing, say "I don't know".
5. Before you build anything with more than two steps, sketch it for me in boxes and arrows, look for anything that leads nowhere, and only then build.
Start by asking me one question about the game.
Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP
How to check it worked
- Ask for something tricky. Say "add a save button". Does your AI explain any new word it uses?
- Look for the word "should". When you see it, ask: "How do you know?"
- Ask for the drawing. Can you follow the sock from the pile to the right basket?
- Explain three words to a friend. Does the kitchen version come out easily?