Startup Widness is a new series from TNW that offers practical lessons from experts who have helped build great companies. This week, Dainius Kavoliūnas, Head of No-Code Platform Hostinger Horizons, shares his tips on vibration coding.
Vibe coding has become an indispensable tool, especially for entrepreneurial thinkers creating apps and platforms to solve everyday problems, optimize business processes, or improve digital experiences. It represents a paradigm shift in software development. Instead of writing lines of code, you can now describe your needs and have AI bring them to life. Vibe coding is fast, intuitive and opens a new realm of possibilities where code is not only functional, but also expressive: it bridges the gap between people’s ideas and machine capabilities.
But like any new tool, getting good results requires some practice. Based on insights from the Hostinger Horizons team and users, here are five practical ways to drive AI more effectively.
1. Keep prompts short and specific
Although vibration coding may seem improvised and free, it is still useful to follow some basic rules to communicate effectively with AI. My main tip for fast engineering is to be concise. Short, clear, specific directions consistently produce better results than vague or broad instructions, and being too general is one of the most common mistakes made by newbies.
For example, a general command like “Create a website” may produce a generic result, while a detailed command like “Create a one-page website for a freelance designer with sections for portfolio, services, and contact form” offers a more relevant and personalized result.
TNW City coworking space: where your best work happens
A workspace designed for growth, collaboration and endless networking opportunities in the heart of technology.
The inclusion of design specifications, feature lists, and style preferences further refines the quality of the output. Accuracy in prompts also minimizes ambiguity and reduces the need for excessive revisions later in the workflow.
2. Break directions into smaller steps
Being specific does not mean overloading the message and grouping all the instructions into a single command. Testing the approach shows that it is more effective to divide developmental tasks into a sequence of smaller, interrelated prompts than to issue a single, complex instruction.
This incremental approach allows AI to focus on specific components, resulting in cleaner code and fewer logical errors. For example, one message might focus on building the structure of a landing page, while subsequent messages add style or functionality. This modular process improves maintainability and facilitates early identification and correction of problems.
3. Encourage AI to propose improvements
Immediate engineering best practices involve using AI not only as a passive generator of results but also as an active participant in the development process. Beyond responding to direct commands, generative AI tools can be used as creative collaborators.
Prompting AI to critique, optimize, or propose alternative solutions can uncover more efficient methods or inspire new design directions. For example, you can ask AI to suggest features, content, or sections.
4. Test frequently
One thing in common between traditional and vibe coding is that timely detection and early fixing of errors can save a lot of time later and help build functional applications faster. Therefore, I recommend testing AI-powered projects early and often, using realistic data or practical scenarios. That allows for quick feedback and continuous refinement.
When you ask AI to add a feature, such as sending an email notification to someone who fills out a contact form on your website, you should always test that it works as expected. In most cases, the functionality will be implemented correctly, but you may still need to refine the user interface. Sometimes the feature may not work at all and you’ll need to give the AI clearer instructions or additional context to get it right.
5. Maintain human supervision
While AI accelerates development, human judgment remains essential, especially for solving complex problems, ensuring long-term maintainability, and verifying the quality of the final product. If an AI-generated result is unsatisfactory, revising the message or approaching the problem from a new angle often leads to improvement.
It is also advisable to retain working versions before making significant changes. This provides a fallback point and allows you to experiment without losing previous progress. Sometimes some technical expertise may also be necessary: Consulting with an experienced developer can help resolve deeper architectural or logic-related challenges.
No equipment, no skills, no problem
Based on feedback from Hostinger Horizons users, these strategies—clear prompts, modular thinking, collaborative refinement, consistent testing, and human oversight—form the backbone of effective AI-assisted coding. As this space evolves, mastering rapid engineering will become a core competency for anyone working with generative development tools.
Take, for example, Prashant Maurya, a 20-year-old student. Without any coding skills and only AI-powered intuition, he created a set of tools on his own. Project X 247including an ad checker, QR generator and store biller. Each took just five to 15 days to build at a fraction of the cost they would have incurred if they had gone the traditional route. More than 1,000 users have already tested its tools, created simply by requesting artificial intelligence.
“As a student with no equipment, no budget, and only a vision to solve real problems, AI coding tools transformed the way I build and launch applications,” Prashant told me.
“The availability of free implementation tools and AI-based support made it possible to build multiple powerful platforms quickly and affordably, and now I’m inspired to help others do the same.”
The power of AI-powered coding tools lies not in productivity, but in accessibility. For people like Prashant, vibration coding is breaking down barriers, allowing anyone with a vision to create powerful applications quickly and affordably. But this democratization depends on one key skill: writing effective prompts. As building becomes easier, standing out for quality and functionality becomes the new challenge, and it all starts with how you order.
#Quick #Engineering #Tips #Vibe #Coding #Success
