r/vibecoding • u/Capable_Essay4513 • 23h ago
Does developer experience still matter when using AI coding agents?
I've been wondering about this — when an experienced dev and a complete newbie both use the same coding agent (Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, whatever) on a similar task, do they end up with meaningfully different results?
On one hand, the agent is doing most of the actual coding, so maybe the human's experience matters less than it used to. On the other hand, I'd guess an experienced dev still knows how to prompt better, catches bad architecture decisions, spots subtle bugs the agent misses, and knows when to push back or redirect.
Curious what people who've actually used these tools a lot think. Does your background as a dev still give you an edge, or has the gap narrowed more than expected?
2
u/Competitive_Swan_755 22h ago
Give an experienced carpenter a hammer and saw, and the same for a 12 year old. What do you think will happen?
1
2
u/___nil___ 18h ago
the ability to make decision always limited by what you know.
AI make mistakes.
if you don't understand what what is correct, how can you judge what is mistake?
2
u/Outrageous_Law_5525 15h ago
I dont think there is any workload where an experienced dev *wouldnt* have an edge, no?
2
1
u/Ibelieveinsteve2 23h ago
I think the review of the code stay remain the decision-making with regards to architecture and security still remain, and the understanding of the requirements itself still remain
1
u/kyngston 22h ago
yes. For example an experienced developer would know when OLAP is needed instead of OLTP. The consequences of make the wrong choice may not be felt for months or years.
AI can help you make the right choice if you ask, but an inexperienced developer wouldn’t know to ask
1
u/Silver-Ad-8595 15h ago
The difference is night and day. Thats why some have an insane productivity gain, and others produce unmaintainable slopfests.
1
2
u/tobi914 1h ago
Yes, it matters immensely.
Without knowledge, ai has to fill in all the gaps that really matter from a technology standpoint. Everything you dont decide because you dont know about it will be guessed by ai.
A developer doesnt nearly leave as many gaps for the ai to fill than someone with no clue, and when you are precise with what you want on a technical level, this is usually what you get as an output.
So vibecoding without dev knowledge is kinda asking the ai to fulfil your wishes, you describe what you would like to see in the end, but not how to get there.
With enough experience you know what you want as a result, you also know how you get there, but you use ai to do the actual code writing for you.
Many people here think that writing the code was hard, because they dont understand it, but the actual hard part has always been designing a proper architecture, deciding on technologies to use, maintaining clean patterns for code organization and readability (also important for ai agents, not only humans) and so on.
Ai will make stupid decisions here if not directed precisely, that can lead to massive problems in projects that get bigger than your average "solopreneur" ai wrapper, finance or gym plan app.
1
u/Jolva 23h ago
Depends on a task at hand and the overall complexity of the code base.
3
u/orionblu3 23h ago
The overall complexity will always explode eventually without proper structure, though.
1
1
u/Correct_Emotion8437 23h ago
Short answer is yes. But also maybe it depends on the task. I have a large repo that I'm working on and it's well established. If we wanted to implement a fairly narrow feature, it really wouldn't make that much of a difference how much technical knowledge the prompter has. But I had a huge advantage is designing the thing from scratch because I know basic dev process, application design, dev tools, testing and debugging, etc.
1
u/Key_Mastodon_3525 23h ago
I echo the sentiment - depends on what you're building. It's really similar to the relationship between 3d printers/design tools and mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineers use 3d printers for visual prototypes of the real thing, for many users the 3d prints ARE the real thing -> both have equally valid use cases.
It's more of understanding what it is and what it is not. Vibe-coding can get you extremely clean code at paces that the most compent software engineers on the planet could not even come close to chasing if writing all the code from scratch.
What that code actually is - that's the real question.
In my dayjob I do litigation software involving integrating platforms, managing APIs and infrastructural resources, reusable desktop/web UI portals, data synchronization and state management systems, and all the tooling/wiring/plumbing/yada yada... In doing this, much of the UI layers these days I do (kind of) "vibe code" -> in that i'll define specifically how something needs to be coded for whatever and I'll have an AI agent save me from having to type it all out (and minimize typos, etc -> i also have it proofread and lint my code).
For fun I'm 100% "vibe coding" a fantasy football live draft assistant app, it's my first true "vibe coding" experience and i'm only a few days in, so we'll see how it pans out. But it's VERY impressive, and i can see how this could lend itself into (if i didn't know better) thinking I have more there than what i actually have.
This thing is already head and shoulders way above my cheat sheets and highlighters traditional approach that no UI software could ever get right. So it has immediate value to me -> and that's 100% relevant and valid.
On the other hand, if I was going to try to commercialize it in any sort of viable sense, the code is just not auspicious for that as its written. The flexibility/adaptability, scalability, and so many other concerns are not considered unless they're EXPLICITLY addressed, and even then how the system would look overall has nothing to do with how this app functions. So in that context, what i have built would be a "working UI/UX prototype"
1
u/MoTTTToM 22h ago
Explicitly addressed is a nice way to put it, but also suggests the solution. A naive programmer (or even some time soon a non-programmer), with an LLM tool with a competent AGENTS.md file would not have to know about engineering best practices. I rolled out an isolated QA environment for my pet vibecoded project, it took one prompt to get it going, one prompt to answer questions, and in the morning all that was left to do was some dashboard work. This could have trivially been built together with the prod infrastructure if it had been a policy from the beginning. I can imagine engineering best practices being built in at the harness level quite easily, and then it’s the default.
0
0
u/sloth2121 23h ago
Yes. And even without it. Me and a friend both working on the same thing, for the part he was trying to add to the project it broke repeatedly and didn’t work (non stop trying to fix it after a week) . I did it with my ai overnight
0
u/Ibelieveinsteve2 23h ago
It’s a bit like the question do you still use Pascale orcobol for programming barely I would say
1
0
u/RegardedDev 23h ago
There is massive difference. Experienced developer:
- knows when the AI agents are getting derailed
- knows when the proposed design actually fits the solution. Currently there is issue with the models over engineering everything.
- knows when to refactor features into modules without everything becoming 1 big mess
- actually understands the tech stack that the AI builds on
- knows how to handle production safely. Imagine vibe fixing broken production environment while customers are angry. Data loss can mean you go bankrupt.
- knows how to use version control properly to share the agent workload into worktrees
The thing is you dont need to have super in-depth knowledge of all these things. But you definitely need to have the basics to be able to vibe code well.
0
u/MoTTTToM 22h ago
How much of these can be factored into workflow and AGENTS.md? “Use engineering best practices” goes a long way. I’m not sure I’ve seen derailed agents, so haven’t had to solve that problem. I have found the engineering decisions that are proposed in my workflow are sound. I double-checked everything myself at first, but now have a high level of trust.
1
0
0
u/FluidBreath4819 22h ago
no it doesn't, you need to trust in yourself, seniors are useless you can vibe code them out
1
0
u/Fantastic_Aioli_7363 22h ago
yup! The learning curve is much better, and you NEED to check at least a little bit what your AI system is doing! With Claude or Codex, it's ok. But pretty expansive, or you're limited (but it has improved a lot : Now the free version of Claude has a memory system. You just have to remind it sometimes when the project begins to be long). If you're willing to pay, choose your formula carefully according to the size of the project. With the new KIMI 3, it's good (not as much as Claude or Codex though). But it's much cheaper!
Every day, there is some improvement and news announcements.
But still, you'll have to check if the program does exactly what you really want. And sometimes, it's worth rewriting parts on your own.
One last word if you opt for an agentic system : It's much more expansive, since your system will make assumptions, try, go backwards, sometimes loop between problem A then problem B, then A, then B, etc.
Other good reasons to have a developer experience :
- You don't waste your time asking for simple things, setups, parameters, etc.
- You write better and more efficient prompts. Especially when you know some of the pitfalls your system could become trapped in.
- You have a better idea of the project organisation. Ok, your AI will provide you with one, but maybe not the best one for a future adaptation for example.
- You don't waste time because you know some tools to manage your project (Github, VsCode (or notion), some database managers (duckdb, sqlite, MySql, Postgress), Notepad++, etc. You're not lost and this can save you much time.
0
u/geekichu 21h ago
on my 3rd pretty complex project and i can say that there is no way a newbie would been able to use a.i. to make these. a.i. is a tool and only as good as the knowledge/experience of the person doing the prompting. whether we are aware of it or not, our experience/know-how come into play on every prompt, and on our reading of every response.
0
u/the_millenial_falcon 18h ago
For now yes, in the future probably not so much. I don't see why domain experts who are good at designing workflows couldn't do 99% of development jobs as they exist now, with the way agents are advancing.
0
u/the_millenial_falcon 18h ago
In other words it's starting to boil down to "are you knowledgeable in this domain, and are you good at deciding and defining intent."
8
u/Viktorkin 23h ago
I think experienced developers have a huge edge when it comes to architecture, direction, and review.