A field guide for vibe coding

You don't build Lego from raw plastic.

Vibe coding works the same way. Once you know the building blocks — what they're called and what they actually do — you snap them together instead of reinventing them each time. This is a quick pass through those blocks, told through one running example.

You don't need this to vibe code. You need it to fault-find.

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10 layers43 terms

The running example

Aden's Mowing

One business, ten layers — from a single file to a product you could sell.

Layers 1–2
One page, one file
Say you're starting a mowing business. You build yourself a single web page — one link on the internet, one file on your computer — that just says “Aden's Mowing”. That's already three ideas at once: what a computer is running, what a webpage actually is, and what's packaged inside that one file.
Layers 3
Getting the world to it
Now you want the rest of the world to find it. That means buying a domain and pointing it at a server that's actually listening for it — the whole cast of domains, DNS, IP addresses, and ports.
Layers 4–6
Remembering visitors
Then you want visitors to leave their mobile number, in a queue only you can see. A static file can't do that — so now you need a database designed before you write a line of app code, a real back end that can save and query state, and a front end that talks to it over an API.
Layers 7–10
The harder stuff
Scale that idea up — a transcription tool, a booking system, a SaaS product other businesses pay for — and you start running into logistics, control flow, the split between internal tools and multi-tenant products, and why modelling your data early saves you from a painful migration later.