I spent the last two months "vibe coding". I really think VC as it is defined (keep smashing the accept button and let the LLM eventually "get there") is terrible. My flow has been to use Claude code for an incredibly amazing code gen where:

1. I know exactly what I want architecturally

2. I know how I want it

In this mode the flow is then about validating the code to make sure it is my "image" frequently rather than me dreading not know what rube Goldberg machine it generated after 10s or Ks of lines.

Sometimes I even let it get "close" (ie it took care of all the nitty gritty) and I take over and finish the interesting bits then tell CC what I did and why to update the project memory. Frequent checkpointing and sprinkling .md files with latest understanding is very important (it also has the advantage of making your code llm-portable).

I think the biggest irony is PMs, VPs, CEO had traditional been pretty derisive of "clean code" and yet clean code is absolutely essential to make vibe coding work. Feels like a huge vindication.