Vibe coding vs Artifact

Vibe coding scatters decisions across chats and carries them forward inconsistently. Artifact holds them once, on the record. And no, you don't have to stop vibing: keep the speed, add the harness.

The product harness →

Vibe coding is great at one thing.

Getting something on the screen, fast. Exploring an idea before you've committed to it. A weekend prototype that tells you whether the idea is worth a month. Nobody who has felt that wants to give it up, and you shouldn't.

The trouble starts the moment the prototype becomes the product. Decisions pile up across chats and threads, inconsistently carried forward. Every rewrite risks what worked yesterday. And the thing you decided in week two lives in a chat window you can't find in week ten.

  • "It fixed the button and broke checkout."
  • "Half the rules made it into this prompt. Half didn't."
  • "The demo was great. Then it met reality."
  • "Can I ship this? I don't know."
  • "Which of these six threads has the decision?"
  • "It's not how I'd build it. But I can't read it."

Same agent. Decisions that stick.

Vibe codingArtifact
Your decisionsScattered across chats, inconsistently carried forwardCaptured once, on the record
When the chat endsWhat you decided stays buried in that threadEvery decision is captured and permanent
Your standardsWhatever the model felt likeCompiled into every session from one rule set
Wrong output?Regenerate and praySee exactly where it drifted; fix the cause
What broke?You find out from a userChecked against the whole product after every run
Switching modelsRe-explain everythingThe record lives outside any provider
Week tenSlower than week oneFaster, because the truth compounds

Add the harness. Keep vibing.

Artifact doesn't slow the agent down. It changes what the agent starts from and what happens when it's done.

  1. 01

    Before the prompt, the agent pulls the brief: what this feature is, its rules, what must not change.

  2. 02

    During, your standards are in the session. It builds it your way.

  3. 03

    After, the result is checked against the whole product. Drift is shown. You decide.

Prototype with vibes on a Saturday if you like. Then put what it's supposed to be on the record, and build the real thing from that.

Governance
Spruce / Features / Book and pay in one flow

Book and pay in one flow

4 rules · 5 acceptance criteria · 3 decisions · last checked against code 14 min ago

  • Book without an account Decided Aug 4 — checked on every change
    Matches intent
  • Apple Pay offered on mobile checkout Built: card only. The build stopped matching what you meant.
    Drifted
  • Cancel inside the refund window You haven't decided: 24 hours, or until the day before?
    Open question
  • The total is shown before pay Decided Jul 22 — checked on every change
    Matches intent

Your product, on the record, in a surface you already know how to read.

Get it in writing.

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