Choosing Your Vibe Coding Tools

The tool you choose shapes your entire vibe coding experience. Pick wrong, and you’ll fight the tool more than build your app. Pick right, and building feels like conversation.

This lesson maps every major tool to the right use case so you can start building immediately.

🔄 Quick Recall: In the previous lesson, you learned vibe coding means describing software in natural language and letting AI build it. Two tool categories exist: AI app builders (no code) and AI code editors (some code).

The Decision Matrix

AI App Builders (No Code Required)

Lovable

Best for: Non-technical founders building MVPs.

Lovable takes a natural language description and generates a complete web application — front-end, back-end, database, and hosting. You interact entirely through conversation.

Getting started:

1. Go to lovable.dev and create an account
2. Describe your app in the chat: “Build a task management app where users can create projects, add tasks with deadlines, and mark them complete”
3. Lovable generates the full app and shows a live preview
4. Iterate: “Add a dark mode toggle” or “Change the layout to a kanban board”

Bolt.new

Best for: Fast prototyping in the browser.

Bolt.new runs entirely in your browser — no downloads, no setup. Type a description, get a running app.

Getting started:

1. Go to bolt.new
2. Type your app description
3. See it build in real time
4. Download the code or deploy directly

Replit Agent

Best for: Learning to code while building.

Replit combines an AI agent with a full development environment. It builds the app but shows you the code and explains what it did.

✅ Quick Check: Your friend wants to build a landing page for their small business but has never written code. Which tool would you recommend? (Answer: Lovable or Bolt.new — both build complete apps from natural language without requiring any coding knowledge. For a simple landing page, Bolt.new might be even faster since it runs entirely in the browser with no account needed.)

AI Code Editors (Developer Tools)

Cursor

Best for: Developers who want AI integrated into their editor.

Cursor is a fork of VS Code with AI built in. It understands your entire codebase and can make multi-file changes through conversation.

Key features:

• Composer mode: Describe a feature, Cursor edits multiple files at once
• Tab completion: AI suggests code as you type
• Chat: Ask questions about your codebase
• Rules files: .cursorrules tells the AI your project’s conventions

Getting started:

1. Download Cursor from cursor.com
2. Open your project (or create a new one)
3. Press Cmd+K (Mac) / Ctrl+K (Windows) for inline AI editing
4. Use Composer (Cmd+I) for multi-file changes

Claude Code

Best for: Terminal-native developers who want AI with direct file access.

Claude Code runs in your terminal. It can read, write, and execute files — plus run commands like git, npm, and tests.

Getting started:

1. Install: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
2. Navigate to your project directory
3. Run claude to start
4. Describe what you want to build or change

Setting Up Rules Files

Rules files make AI understand your project automatically:

For Cursor (.cursorrules in project root):

This is a Next.js 14 project with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS.
Use the App Router pattern.
Components go in /components, pages in /app.
Use Zod for form validation.
Always add error handling and loading states.

For Claude Code (.claude/rules files):

Tech stack: React + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS
Database: Supabase with Row Level Security
API: Next.js API routes
Testing: Vitest for unit, Playwright for e2e
Always write TypeScript, never JavaScript.

✅ Quick Check: Why should you set up a rules file before starting a vibe coding project? (Answer: The rules file is included in every AI interaction automatically. Without it, you’d need to repeat “use TypeScript” and “follow Tailwind conventions” in every single prompt. With it, the AI already knows your stack and conventions — every prompt produces code that fits your project.)

Your First Build: Hello World

Whichever tool you chose, try this now:

For Lovable/Bolt.new:

“Build a personal portfolio page with my name at the top, a brief bio, a section for 3 projects with titles and descriptions, and a contact section with email and LinkedIn links.”

For Cursor/Claude Code:

“Create a simple Next.js page with a hero section containing my name and title, a projects grid with 3 placeholder cards, and a footer with contact links. Use Tailwind CSS for styling.”

Run it. See the result. Then change something: “Make the background dark” or “Add a gradient to the hero section.”

That back-and-forth — describe, see result, iterate — is the core vibe coding loop. Every lesson builds on this pattern.

Practice Exercise

1. Choose a tool from the matrix based on your experience level
2. Set it up (create account or install)
3. Build the “Hello World” portfolio page above
4. Make 3 changes through conversation (color, layout, content)
5. If using Cursor or Claude Code, create a rules file for your project

Key Takeaways

• AI app builders (Lovable, Bolt.new, Replit) need zero coding experience
• AI code editors (Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf) give developers more control
• Rules files tell the AI your project conventions — set them up first
• The core loop is: describe → see result → iterate
• Start with the tool that matches your experience level, upgrade later

Up Next

In the next lesson, you’ll learn the prompting techniques that separate vibe coders who struggle from those who build on the first try.