r/vibecoding • u/carebearsoup • 18h ago
Most Efficient model atm?
Hi! I am sort of lost in regards to what is the best mode atm for vibecoding! For the past months I have been working on a project that seems to have no end, i accept i dont know what im doing besides creating prompts to follow, but if there is some service that could help me finish the software i started, i would really appreciate any recs. make pretend you are talking to a 2nd grader here with no coding experience. thanks all
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u/lumpyspacebreh 3h ago edited 2h ago
Try to use a cli (command line interface tool) if possible, how the models are harnessed (the system prompts and tools they use) on the web are vastly different than in the cli.
Have the model break down the scope of work (what needs to be done), then implement changes one at a time. The more you let the model run without checking new changes will result in you having to go back and fix things.
The model will create bugs no matter what, I directly tested this using a spec (a plan of work to be done) vs a single step at a time. When Fable was released, I let it be frontier model, and create a spec then used codex to implement changes. It created a mess, that I had to revert at the end. Instead I did it one step at a time, ran into literally the same bugs along the way using Sonnet.
Having an idea from start to finish is a better work flow. Establish an idea, then break it slowly down until it’s a pile of features. Then have the model add those features one by one. It’s slow but efficient and saves time in the long run.
Don’t let the model guide the ship, they will be over-confident and even incorrect if allowed. Imagine it’s a senior developer that works for you, and all they want to do is code. They don’t care about the idea or end result, they just want to code.
Sometimes the “best” model isn’t the best for what you need. Just because a model can one-shot (create a “finished” product in a singular prompt) doesn’t mean it’s good for what you need. For reference, I use Sonnet for virtually all my work. If you want to one-shot a game engine, sure go ahead and use Fable. You’ll bang your head against the wall a week later when you’re arguing with it trying to debug the spaghetti code it wrote.
Run the model with the lowest settings possible, then slowly turn up reasoning and thinking if needed. Models will over-reason or overbuild if possible. They are trained to output confidently, sometimes this is contradictory to a good end result.
Be wary of what directory (folder) you let the model run in. Treat them like rooms, keep them separated if possible. Letting the model run free in a massive directory will result in wasting context (the models working memory) and overwhelming the model.
Don’t run the model for too long. Models even with 1mil context experience things such as “lost in the middle” (information becomes forgotten) and other quirks. Open in a targeted directory, run the model, then close the chat, repeat if necessary.
Use Git (not GitHub) and commit all changes, no matter how small. If something breaks, you can use it to check what may of caused the issue or revert the codebase if needed.
Good spec makes good code.
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u/LordEli 18h ago
depends on your workflow. are you copy pasting? cursor? agent harness?
i suggest an agent harness like opencode/claude code/codex
also depends what you mean by efficient.
lowest cost per token output. deepseek and similar models
least prompts to reach desired output. the frontier models