The spectrum of agentic coding
@ykdojo at @daftengine
Vibe coding and traditional software engineering are not opposites
Four levels of agentic coding
Level 1: Vibe coding
- Let AI go wild
- Forget the code even exists
- Error logs? Just throw them at the AI
- Version control? What's that?
Fine for one-off projects
Don't expect it to be maintainable
Level 2: Agentic coding with discipline
- Version control - Git and GitHub
- File-level understanding
- Basic security precautions
- Testing - make sure it actually works
Level 3: Agentic software engineering
- Tests you actually verify
- Pre-commit hooks
- CI jobs for continuous testing
- Function-level understanding
Additional quality control measures
- Careful manual testing
- End-to-end tests
- One-shot AI code reviews
- Regression checks
Level 4: High-quality software engineering
- Line-by-line understanding
- Self-reflection loops
- Interactive AI code reviews
Live terminal demo
To run locally: cd ~/Desktop/projects/librarian2 && ttyd -i 127.0.0.1 -p 7777 -W tmux new -A -s demo \; set status off \; set mouse on
github.com/Eventual-Inc/librarian2/pull/2
- Advanced research methods
- AI-powered quality control
- Accelerated learning
| Level |
Quality |
Speed |
Testing |
Code Review |
| Vibe Coding |
Low |
Lightning |
Bare minimum |
None |
| Agentic Coding with Discipline |
Okay |
Faster |
Sufficient |
Brief |
| Agentic Software Engineering |
Medium |
Fast |
Thorough |
One-shot |
| High-Quality Software Engineering |
High |
Decent |
Rock solid |
Interactive |
Master all four levels
Be flexible
Sometimes vibe coding is fine
Quick prototypes, one-off scripts, experiments
Sometimes you need high quality
Large-scale systems, mission-critical, medical software
The real problem with "slop"
more tokens == s**t?
more tokens != s**t
Live terminal demo
To run locally: cd ~/Desktop/projects/librarian2 && ttyd -i 127.0.0.1 -p 7777 -W tmux new -A -s demo \; set status off \; set mouse on
Level 5: Dynamic vibe adjustment (DVA)
Start with vibe → adjust as necessary
Three.js in place of Unity for demo
"Make a 3D bat"
"Make a 3D bat"
"Make a bat in SVG"
"Now make it a flat 3D model"
"Now make it a flat 3D model"
"Now make it a full 3D model"
"Now make it a full 3D model"
"Now make three of them circle around"
"Now make three of them circle around"
"They need to face the direction of movement"
"They need to face the direction of movement"
"They should be tilted forward"
"They should be tilted forward"
"Not that way, the other way!"
"Not that way, the other way!"
43 Claude Code tips
luma.com/ccbc
linkedin.com/in/ykdojo
