Back to Handbook

Mastery · Intermediate

The Golden Rules

Core Principles

The definitive list of do's, don'ts, and martial arts style principles for vibecoding mastery.

01

The Pillars of Discipline

Vibecoding is not lazy coding. It requires a higher level of discipline to manage the AI effectively.

01

Atomic Commits

Never let the AI make 10 changes at once. Commit every single feature independently.

02

Context Hygiene

Aggressively clear chat history. If the AI gets confused, don't argue—reset.

03

Trust but Verify

Read the code. If you don't understand it, ask the AI to explain it before accepting.

02

The Commandments

Adhere to these rules to avoid 'Context Rot' and spaghetti code.

  • Rule #1: Be Specific. Never say 'Fix it'. Say 'Update the User Component to handle null states using optional chaining'.
  • Rule #2: One File at a Time. When debugging, ask the AI to focus on a single file to prevent hallucinations across the codebase.
  • Rule #3: Use Reference Material. Paste documentation or successful code patterns into the chat to guide the AI's style.

03

Anti-Patterns (What NOT to do)

Avoid these common traps that lead to broken projects.

  • The Monolith Prompt: Pasting a 5-page requirement document and expecting a working app. (Solution: Vertical Slices)
  • The 'Let it Ride' Mentality: Ignoring small errors in the console because 'it works for now'. These compound into unfixable bugs.
  • Blind Copy-Paste: Pasting terminal commands without reading them. This is how you get security vulnerabilities.