You built something with an AI coding tool and it works — mostly. Or you’ve been using Claude Code or Cursor and the codebase is starting to feel like it has a life of its own. Or you’re brand new and want to start with good habits.
This guide is the distilled wisdom from 25+ practitioner sources, Reddit communities, YC discussions, and real project experience. These aren’t theoretical — they’re the practices that kept coming up, independently, from people who learned them the hard way.
The Session Loop
Every productive vibe coding session follows a rhythm. Everything in this guide is either a step in that loop or a guard rail that keeps you on it.
The 15 Core Practices
01 — Give Your AI a Context File
The single most universal tip in vibe coding. Every AI tool has one — CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, AGENTS.md. It’s what the AI reads at session start. Without it, you’re starting from scratch every time. Keep it under 150 lines. Commit it to git.
02 — Plan Before You Prompt
The practice most commonly skipped. The one most commonly regretted. Don’t start prompting until you’ve thought through what you’re building, found reference implementations, and written a plan.md. Speed without direction just gets you to the wrong place faster.
03 — Commit Before Every Session
Losing a week of work to a bad AI session is one of the worst experiences. git commit before the AI touches anything. Push to remote. Your laptop is not a backup.
04 — Keep Files Small and Modular
Large files are kryptonite for AI. Past 500 lines, it loses context, hallucinates functions that exist, and duplicates logic. Schedule periodic consolidation passes.
05 — Keep Secrets Sacred
Real incidents — AI tools reading .env files and including keys in commits. Block your AI from .env. Separate dev and prod keys. Graduate to a vault for production.
06 — Test After Every Change
Start with backend/data layer tests. For frontend, calibrate to complexity. Ask: if this breaks silently in production, how bad is it?
07 — Iterate Fast First, Then Carefully
Phase 1 (Chaotic): Move fast, find the shape. Phase 2 (Stable): One feature at a time, protect what works. The transition signal: when you’d be upset if a feature broke.
08 — Manage Your Context Window
AI doesn’t have memory between sessions. As conversations grow, older context degrades. When debugging stretches past 15–20 messages without resolution — start fresh. Write a HANDOFF.md summary.
09 — Be a Student of Your Own Code
Never accept code you don’t understand. Not because you need to rewrite it — because when it breaks, you need to point the AI in the right direction.
10 — Run Lint and Typecheck Constantly
Set up Husky pre-commit hooks with lint-staged. Nothing gets committed without passing. Make it a reflex.
11 — Use Strict TypeScript
any is a lie you tell TypeScript so it stops complaining. The bug it was surfacing is now invisible. Run periodic any-audits.
12 — Document as You Build
Your CLAUDE.md is documentation. Your plan.md is documentation. Your commit messages are documentation. Build this layer deliberately.
13 — Ask for Options, Not Just Answers
Don’t let AI default to its first instinct. Ask for 2-3 approaches with trade-offs before writing code. Then run a gap analysis.
14 — Build a Database Documentation Layer
Without a documented schema, the AI guesses at your data structure every session. Create a /docs/supabase/ folder mapping your entire data layer.
15 — Define Your Conventions
Your folder structure and naming conventions are a language. If you don’t define it, the AI invents its own dialect. Document in conventions.md, reference in CLAUDE.md.
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
- The “Accept Everything” Trap — AI generates, you accept, repeat 50 times. You can’t debug code you don’t understand.
- The Giant File — 1,200 lines doing five things. The AI can’t hold it in context.
- The Uncommitted Session — Three hours of work. AI goes off the rails. Nowhere to roll back.
- The Naked
.env— Secrets in AI context. Documented real incidents. - The
anyEscape Hatch — Bug goes invisible. Surfaces in production. - The Context Death Spiral — Hour-long debugging, AI suggesting things it already tried.
- The Bloated CLAUDE.md — 400 lines. AI ignores half. Your real rules get lost.
The Session Checklist
Before starting:
git add . && git commit && git pushplan.mdis up to date- Fresh context window with
CLAUDE.md
During:
- One feature at a time
- Review output before accepting
- Run lint + typecheck after each file
- Test each change before the next
Before finishing:
- Commit + push final work
- Update
HANDOFF.mdorplan.md - Files under 500 lines? If not, flag for next session
Want the full guide with all prompt templates and deep dives on every practice? Download the complete version below.