What it feels like to truly vibe code a project from start to finish (in late 2026)

I have a background in full-stack software development, project management, and even some product management. I know how to take software ideas from idea all the way to production.

A few days ago, I finally signed up for a paid subscription to Claude.AI’s pro plan. Here are my impressions of what it feels like to vibe-code a software project from end to end.

I’m using Claude in fully automatic mode - when I ask it to create a feature, it makes all the edits to the codebase on its own. It asks me questions if it needs input, but apart from that, it acts like an engineer would. The only thing I do is review the changes and operate the version control (Git).

My approach is build up the featureset incrementally instead of ask Claude to create the entire app in one shot.

It feels like time travel

When I ask for a feature, it only takes a few minutes for Claude to create what would take me many hours. A month’s worth of work done in under a day.

Iterate like never before

Since the time (and money) cost of developing is so low, you can create something, test it, iterate on it or completely scrap it within a fraction of the time. Since the time and money cost of developing features is so low, one can concentrate fully on creating a product that perfectly meets the needs of their audience.

Trust is earned (quickly)

For a while I told people to think of LLM’s as a very intelligent and capable but unpredictable intern. After a day’s worth of watching the current generation of LLM’s not only write code but also test it prior to each tasks’s completion, I’m don’t think the intern is nearly as unpredictable as I’d previously thought.

Don’t need an issue tracker anymore.

If issues (and features) get fixed within minutes, then who needs an issue tracker? Or teams of engineers?

For my first project I spent some time setting up my issue tracker, and a few text files. I stopped using them as soon as I realized the speed with which features were being completed. In the time it would take to create a ticket, Claude code will likely be done implementing the change.