Not all LLM assisted coding is vibe coding. Vibe coding goes something like , throw it a prompt, then repeat "it works" or "it doesn't work" or "it works, but I want Feature XYZ, also" or repeated "ok, but make it better."

Vibe implies missing knowledge or experience - LLMs are a great equalizer, on the level of handguns or industrialization. Everyone can use them, some can use them well, and the value of using them well is enormous.

A real SWE is going to say "ok, now build a new function doing XYZ" and in their agents.md they'll have their entire project specs and baseline prompt framework, with things like "document in the specified standard, create the unit test, document how the test integrates with the existing features, create a followup note on any potential interference with existing functionality, and update the todo.md" and so forth, with all the specific instructions and structure and subtasks and boring project management most of us wouldn't even know to think of. Doing it right takes a lot of setup and understanding how software projects should be run, and using the LLMs to do all the work they excel at doing, and not having them do the work they suck at.

I only know the binary "that works" or not, for most things I've vibe coded. It'd be nice to have the breadth of knowledge and skills to do things right, but I also feel like it'd take a lot of the magic out of it too, lol.

One means (used to mean?) actually checking the LLM's output one means keep trying until it outputs does what you want.

I disagree, "vibe" characterizes how the LLM is being used, not that AI is being used at all. The vibe part means it's not rigorous. Using an LLM to autocomplete a line in an otherwise traditionally coded project would not be considered "vibe" coding, despite being AI assisted, because the programmer can easily read and verify the line is as correct as if they had typed it character by character.