After a few months of “vibe coding”, I think I’ve reached a conclusion. It works if it’s one person touching the code. We’ve arrived at the “webmaster” times.
When more than one person gets involved, it becomes more “techie” and more software engineering concepts become necessary again — managing branches, the release process, stack/framework style definitions, managing secrets, etc.
A project I’m on got to the point where it was easier to “download” the code, send the result and reimplement it. I went back to the FTP days.
This is normal. Anyone who has worked in a slightly larger product structure knows you need some rules from the [discipline of] “ops”.
The same is true for low-code. Have you ever tried to change things built by other people? I end up redoing them because it’s easier than understanding what the other person did.
Dealing with “legacy” isn’t simple. On this project we’ll have to implement some rules for publishing. And so we’re back to the complications of the product world. :)
We’re still far from something managed like a Google Doc, where you change it and everyone sees the result. I also understand that, in most cases, that WYSIWYG isn’t what people want.
Today it’s relatively easy to generate the code, but managing teams, deciding what to do and how to ship it… That’s still relatively hard to do. Phew?
Originally written in Portuguese and published on LinkedIn on September 29, 2025. I translated it into English with the help of AI (Claude): it let me bring my LinkedIn posts to people who don’t read Portuguese without rewriting each one from scratch. I reviewed the translation to keep my original meaning and tone.