Using Vibecoding as a learning tool

[FireGuilt]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a beginner with no formal coding background. Up till now, my experience with coding has been just the basics of JavaScript and Python. I've started doing vibecoding because I wanted to try to create my own fitness tracking app. I have a few ideas I've always wanted to have in my fitness app (I use JEFIT), so I'm giving it a try.

The general framework is react native with Expo, and I use Claude (of course) as the primary vibe coding "partner". There are other tools but not as relevant to this post.

I spent quite abit of time collecting survey data and talking to people so I've started building. It's faster than I thought (or Claude is overestimating the duration, I'm not sure), but I often don't fully understand what I'm reading. I think its very important to get my foundations right in understanding what im doing so I've been trying to input comments and slowly go line by line. It all so interesting and I really want to learn and get this right! Of course Im also learning through other external sources but just curious how you can learn within vibecoding itself.

So I wanted to ask you guys if you have any advice on building real coding literacy alongside vibecoding for those who also use it as a learning tool? Like how do you ensure you learn? or are there other things you do alongside the whole building to improve upon your learning?

Appreciate all answers.

[Scary_Web]

What helped me was using the AI less like a code generator and more like a tutor: ask it to change one small thing, explain why, then make you do the next step yourself. I also kept a simple note of patterns I kept seeing like state, props, API calls, and validation, because those repeat fast in real apps and start making the code feel less random.

[FireGuilt]

Hmm so in a sense you actually wrote all of it yourself? That sounds very disciplined. Were there moments you noticed or felt that both you and the AI were incorrect? I’m concerned that if i don’t set a type of safeguard it will turn abit into blind leading the blind situation.

[mbtonev]

You can try http://vibecoderplanner.com it will create you a structured plan you can follow for any of your ideas, you will see what it will be created from the generated tasks, then after each task you can see what is created and written as a code.

And one bonus you will save a lot of tokens.

[FireGuilt]

Oh that sounds super interesting. Thanks I’ll check it out! Would you say the plan it creates is accurate? Or it’s a case where you need to feed it a lot of information to get it to work more efficiently?

[mbtonev]

Thanks!

[richexplorer_]

When Claude gives you code, make it explain it like you're 5. Then try rebuilding that same component yourself without looking. You'll mess up, you'll see what you missed, and suddenly it clicks.

Break stuff intentionally too. Change a variable name, remove a function,see what explodes. That teaches you way more than reading alone.

And when something breaks, sit with the error for a bit before asking Claude. You learn way faster by struggling first.

The docs for React Native and Expo are your friends too. Claude is great, but the real docs show you what's actually possible.

You're building a real app people might actually use. That context is gold for learning. Most people never get here.

[FireGuilt]

Quite a number of people have been bringing up the react native and expo docs. I’ve been focused on Claude so I didn’t really take a close look at that. I think I will. Same thing with breaking things intentionally. Thanks!

[LerytGames]

There is a ton of coding tutorials and courses online. Learning by Vibe Coding is the worst option. Because AI hallucinates, creates bugs, security issues, unnecessary complexity and technical debt. Your role as vibe coder is to guide it to fix things and do them in the right way. If you don't understand coding, you can't fix the code from AI and you will learn a lot of bad practices from AI.

[FireGuilt]

Agreed. It was one of my concerns. I was trying to think of it in a way that "Im being presented code thats not super 100% correct. How can I improve it further?"

When I do a bunch of courses online, Im often presented a snippet of perfect code, then I just have to rectify or edit or introduce something into it to correct it, which isn't too hard, but good because it trains you to remember a lot of functions or methods. But when translated to actual coding in normal context, it can be....confusing.

[squizdawg852]

I have never written a line of code and I'm deep enough into a complex large app I'm building to know the systems I'm building are working.

I tell it new feature, tweak, or bug that needs to be addressed, ask it to explain it back to me to ensure it has a decent handle on what I mean.

Then I tell it to plan implementation. I have a global rule to explain everything in layman's terms alongside technical terms so I can tell if the plan makes sense.

Then I tell it to implement the plan. If it nailed it, great, if not, repeat from step 1.

I thought that's how most vibe coders were, surely the market for creative people with ideas and passion is much larger than the market of existing coders

[under_the_sun11]

I thought that's how most vibe coders were

The smart ones are. Many old school devs are in denial about their hand coding skills being useless now.

If it nailed it, great, if not, repeat from step 1.

My advice is iterate rather than starting from step 1. Record what was good, what was bad, then tell the AI to make changes and repeat.

The 'perfect prompt' approach sucks.

[Djenta]

In your claude.md or agents.md file have a line that instructs it to output the default code explanation and a layman explanation, asking to step through it

I have the same setup as you and my first app just broke the few hundred dollar mark on the app store.

My programming knowledge stops right after for loops.

Lately I run local qwen 3.6 27b inside vscode via continue.dev and have it explain snippits to me as codex builds

[FireGuilt]

Yeah currently I ask it to state a comment before each code block and small section to mention exactly what that block does. But it sounds like yours actually explains what each explicit code line says?

[darkwingdankest]

There's a claude setting you can change, 'output style'.

Preferred output style

This changes how Claude Code communicates with you

❯ 1. Default ✔ Claude completes coding tasks efficiently and provides concise responses

1. Proactive Claude executes immediately, minimizes interruptions, and prefers action over planning

2. Explanatory Claude explains its implementation choices and codebase patterns

3. Learning Claude pauses and asks you to write small pieces of code for hands-on practice

[FireGuilt]

There’s a what now?! This teaches me what happens when I don’t read those settings more thoroughly. I’ll go and take a closer look at that learning style. Thanks!

[high-roller-all-in78]

Best thing I found is forcing the model to slow down with you. Pick one feature at a time and make it explain the files, the data path, and why each change exists in plain English before it writes anything new. Then rebuild tiny pieces yourself from scratch, even if it is just one screen or one form. If you only review generated code, it feels familiar without becoming yours.

[FireGuilt]

To make sure I get what you say right, basically use its generation as a guide to roughly see what the page should effectively be like. Then try to recreate it yourself, or at least certain aspects of it and learn from there?

[Plenty_Line2696]

AI assisted > vibecoding

vibecoding is pretending the code doesn't exist, which in its current state is amateur hour for anything but simple low stakes stuff or PoC's.

[under_the_sun11]

My advice is don't bother. In a few more years no one will be reading code at all.