Spec-driven Development

Why “Vibe Coding” Is Trash and What Actually Works

The Big Problem with “Vibe Coding”

Let me just start with the thing everybody’s thinking but nobody wants to say out loud:

Vibe coding sucks.

> Write me an app that makes me a Tech bro!

Thinking ...

There. I said it.

I hate the term. It’s annoying, unprofessional, and honestly just stupid. And the funny part? Most of the people I work with agree. They hate it too. Because vibe coding, this idea that you just “go with the flow,” let the AI “build it,” and hope for the best, is a guaranteed path to trash results.

Sometimes vibe coding gets you close. So close. But it always ends up being that kind of “so close but so far away” situation where you have something that resembles what you wanted… but isn’t actually what you needed.

And let’s be real for a second:

The only people who are satisfied with vibe coding are people who weren’t good at coding in the first place.

AI should enhance your abilities… not replace your thinking.

But the way people are using AI right now? It’s messy, inconsistent, and full of rework, frustration, and hallucinated code. And that brings me to the method I’ve been using that actually works.

A method that increases my velocity, improves clarity, minimizes mistakes, and lets me ship features… even advanced ones… in hours.

It’s called Spec-Driven Development.

This isn’t new. It’s not “my invention.” Seasoned developers have been doing this for years.

But now?
Now you can do it with you and AI together, and it changes everything.

What Spec-Driven Development Actually Is

Back in the day, and in every mature engineering org on the planet, teams didn’t just run off and code. They sat down and created a spec:

• What problem are we solving?
• What are the parameters?
• What is the expected result?
• How should the system behave?
• How should security look?
• What does success look like?

They planned together. They wrote it down. They aligned.

That’s spec-driven development.

And now, because we work with AI coding agents, this process is even more critical. Because if you don’t tell an AI exactly what to build, it’ll just make something up. And it’ll look confident doing it too.

Spec-Driven Development fixes that. It gives you a map.

The Six Prompts That Changed Everything for Me

I use six prompts to generate a complete end-to-end spec. From problem → requirements → design → tasks → checks → final implementation.

Once the spec is done, the feature is basically done. I’m knocking out features in hours, not days.

Here’s how it works.

Prompt 0: Problem Definition (Optional but Powerful)

I call this Prompt Zero because you don’t always need it. But when you do, it’s clutch.

This prompt is for me and the AI to fully understand the problem.

I tell it:

• Here’s what I’m dealing with
• Here’s what’s breaking
• Here’s what I’m trying to do

Then the AI helps me write a clear, direct, concise problem definition.

This is where you figure out what the actual problem is… not the symptoms.

Prompt 1: The Requirements

Once the problem is defined, I tell the AI:

“Okay, based on this, create requirements that will actually solve this.”

We go back and forth. We refine them. We make them testable, traceable, real.

This step alone eliminates 80% of the rework most developers deal with. (Not a real statistic but I’d like to think so.)

Prompt 2: The Design

Now we get to the design.

If you’re working on a brand-new project, great!… design however you want.

But most people aren’t working on greenfield anything. You’re working in enterprise systems, legacy code, real-world constraints.

So I tell the AI:

• Don’t redesign the whole app
• Don’t rewrite the architecture
• Just design how this feature fits into the current system

It generates:

• Technical design
• Data flow
• Security considerations
• Test strategy
• Optional Mermaid diagrams

Everything in one markdown document.

Prompt 3: The Tasks

Now we convert design INTO action.

I tell the AI to create tasks.md with:

• Major tasks
• Subtasks
• References back to the requirements and design
• Clear validation steps

This document becomes the blueprint for the implementation for me or for an AI agent.

Prompt 4: The Traceability Matrix & Findings

This right here? This is my secret sauce.

The traceability matrix ties everything together:

• Every requirement links to a design element
• Every design element links to a task
• Every task maps back to a requirement

Most developers never do this. But this is what prevents you from ever going off-track… the exact opposite of vibe coding.

Then it generates a findings.md file: a list of discrepancies, ambiguities, gaps, and questions.

And trust me:
There will always be discrepancies.

Why? Because humans are flawed, LLMs are flawed, and most problems are messier than we think.

The findings file tells you where the holes are.

Prompt 5: The Corrections

Now we fix it.

You read the findings, answer any questions, and then tell the AI:

“Review everything again. Fix the misalignments. Update the findings file. Repeat.”

You do this loop until:

• All requirements align
• All designs align
• All tasks align
• Everything matches the original problem definition

At that point? You are ready to build.

Implementation: The Easy Part

Once the spec is solid, implementing the feature is straightforward.

No wandering. No vibe coding tangents. No hallucinated nonsense.
No “wait… why did the agent create 3 new files I never asked for?”

You just work task by task, validate each one, run tests, and push.

And the best part?

No rework. No spaghetti. No mystery code.

You know where you started. You know where you ended. You know exactly how you got there.

That’s Spec-Driven Development.

Final Thoughts

Vibe coding feels exciting… right up until the moment you have to maintain the garbage it created.

Spec-Driven Development isn’t exciting.
It’s not trendy.
It’s not a buzzword.

But it works.

It gives you clarity. It gives you direction. It gives you a map.

And when you pair a great spec with AI coding agents?

You become unstoppable.

If you want to be a 10x developer in the age of AI, don’t vibe code.

Spec it.
Design it.
Build it right.

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