Stop Vibe-Coding: Lessons From Shipping a Real NodeJS Feature With AI

A few weeks ago, I jumped into an existing NodeJS project with a tough constraint: no documentation, unfamiliar tech stack, and a four-week delivery deadline. The kind of setup where good engineers quietly panic. But this time, we had AI as part of the workflow.

I went in with zero NodeJS experience. Windsurf (our AI coding assistant) quickly became my guide—not just writing code but explaining the architecture, the patterns, the reasoning behind each file and function. That part was magical. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could ask deeply technical questions and get clarity in minutes. And at first, I genuinely felt safe with AI. But what happened next is something every engineer needs to hear—because AI productivity is real, but so is AI-induced chaos if you treat it the wrong way.

The Rise and Fall of Vibe-Coding

Day 1 — Superpowers Activated (10× productivity)

With Windsurf guiding the unfamiliar NodeJS ecosystem, I pushed the first working commit in under four hours. It felt unreal—correct file locations, proper error handling, sane logic. AI made me 10× fast, and I was fully in the zone.

Day 2 — Still fast, but cracks appear (8× productivity)

Edge cases, as expected, gave AI trouble. I had to step in manually. Still fast, still comfortable. I wasn’t worried.

Day 3 — The Crash (-3× productivity)

This is the day I started vibe-coding:

• Skimming tickets instead of reading carefully
• Letting AI choose things for me
• Not reviewing prompts
• Not reviewing diffs

I asked the AI to “fetch a list from the database.”
It picked the wrong table.

Even worse: the 45-second pause while it “spun up” was enough time for me to pick up my phone and fully lose context. The tech lead later asked why a page filter had disappeared—and I realized Windsurf had actually asked me for confirmation earlier, but I missed it. The whole day went into fixing this mistake.

Day 4 — Git hell (-5× productivity)

A minor merge conflict turned catastrophic.
Why? Because I didn’t know what the AI had changed over the last two hours. I didn't actually understand the branch anymore. I ended up deleting the whole thing and asking AI to rebuild the feature from scratch. Painful.

Day 5 — The reboot (consistent 2× productivity)

This is when I finally stopped vibe-coding and started collaborating with AI.

• Small tasks.
• Tiny commits.
• Full review.
• Manual testing.

And suddenly, the week stabilized.

What I Learned: AI Can Give You 2–3× Gains—If You Stop Vibe-Coding

AI is not a senior engineer. It is not your cofounder. It is not the voice of truth. AI is a brilliant but inconsistent junior developer. Treat it like one, and your productivity doubles. Treat it like a magician, and your productivity goes deeply negative.

Here’s what actually works:

1. Slice Work to Atoms — “One Intent Per Commit”

Small scopes protect you from big disasters.

• Tell the AI: “Do only X. Nothing more.”
• Never ask for multiple tasks in one prompt.
• Commit early with meaningful messages.
• Every commit should work end-to-end.

If something feels off, reset. Branch from a clean base. Or regenerate the feature completely instead of stacking patches.

Atomic tasks = atomic failures = easy recovery.

2. Verify Everything the AI Touches

Speed without verification isn’t productivity. It’s just faster mistakes.

Your workflow should be:

• Read the spec carefully.
• Read every single line of the diff.
• Verify nothing critical disappeared.
• Run the app.
• Manually test the flow.

When the AI attempts something risky—refactors, model changes, deletion of logic—require explicit confirmation in your prompts. AI is not consistent enough to be trusted blindly, but it is consistent enough that good process keeps it safe.

3. Manage AI Like a Real Team Member

Treat the AI as a junior dev whose work has potential but needs guidance:

•  Give precise instructions
• Ask for a short plan before implementation 
• Require it to explain changes
• Maintain your own focus (phone out of room helps)
• Keep a simple “next step” note so latency doesn’t break your flow
• Expect inconsistency and design around it

When the process is tight, the chaos disappears. You still get the speed—just not the whiplash.

If You Catch Yourself Vibe-Coding—Stop Immediately

Vibe-coding feels good in the moment:
fast responses, fast diffs, fast dopamine.

But the cost is massive:

• Git archaeology
• broken features
• rework consuming whole days
• losing trust with your team
• the awful “why did this disappear?” conversation with your tech lead

AI is powerful. But unsupervised power is dangerous. The path to real, stable AI productivity is the same path you use with human teammates:

Small scopes, frequent working commits, full diff reviews, and end-to-end testing.

Follow that, and you can reliably get 2–3× productivity—not the chaotic 10× highs followed by -5× crashes.