Vibe Coder 101 · free · self-paced
Learn to build software by describing it.
A course for people who have never written code. Phase 1 fits in a weekend and ends with a real app you built, ran, broke and fixed yourself. Phases 2 to 4 go as deep as you want, whenever you want.
Phase 1 · Weekend track
Foundations — Your First Weekend
Six short stages, doable in a weekend. You finish with a real app you built, ran, broke, and fixed yourself.
6 stages · about 75 min
What Vibe Coding Actually Is
You describe what you want in normal words. The computer writes the code. Here is what that really means.
Stage 2What You Can Actually Build
Websites, web apps, phone apps, desktop apps, and more. Knowing the difference decides everything that follows.
Stage 3Setting Up Your First AI Coding Tool
There are a lot of tools. You only need one. Here is how to pick and get moving in fifteen minutes.
Stage 4Writing Your First Real Prompt
A prompt is an order. Vague orders get vague food. Here is how to describe what you actually want.
Stage 5Running, Viewing, and Testing What You Built
Code sitting in a file is a recipe nobody baked. Here is how to actually see your app — and try to break it.
Stage 6Your First Fix: Reading Errors and Iterating
Error messages are not the computer being rude. They are it telling you exactly which step went wrong.
Phase 2
Leveling Up — Real Skills
The habits that separate a demo from software you can keep working on. One topic at a time, no rush.
5 stages · about 73 min
Prompting Like a Pro: Context Engineering
The AI only knows what it can see. Managing what it can see is most of the skill.
Stage 8Reading Code You Didn't Write
You do not need to write code from scratch. You do need to be able to read it well enough to check it.
Stage 9Debugging AI Code Systematically
Stop guessing. There is a method, and it works even when you do not understand the code yet.
Stage 10Save Points: Never Lose Your Work
A checkpoint you can jump back to, exactly like a video game. This one habit prevents the worst day you will have.
Stage 11Structuring a Multi-Feature App
One file is fine until it is not. Here is how to grow without turning your project into a junk drawer.
Phase 3
Under the Hood — How It Actually Works
The mental model nobody explains: front end and back end, what a database really is, what a stack means, and hosting versus a domain name. No code in this phase — just the words, so the rest stops being mysterious.
5 stages · about 76 min
Front End, Back End: What Those Words Mean
A restaurant has a dining room and a kitchen. Software is the same, and knowing which is which explains almost everything.
Stage 13What a Database Actually Is
A spreadsheet that many people can use at the same time without ruining each other’s work. That is most of it.
Stage 14Working with Databases and APIs
Where your data actually lives, and how your app talks to other services without leaking your keys.
Stage 15What a "Stack" Is, and How to Pick One
A stack is just the list of tools your app is built from. Choosing well is mostly about choosing boring.
Stage 16Hosting vs Domain Names: What You Are Actually Buying
Hosting is the land. The domain is the street address. They are bought separately, and mixing them up is the classic first-launch confusion.
Phase 4
Production-Ready — Ship It For Real
Everything between "it works on my machine" and other people relying on it — security, testing, deploying, and knowing if anyone showed up.
9 stages · about 139 min
Security Basics for AI-Generated Code
Five things that let a stranger read your data or spend your money. None of them are hard to check.
Stage 18Testing and the Due Diligence Audit
A report card for your app, against a fixed standard, before anyone else sees it.
Stage 19Know the Moment It Breaks
Your app will break for someone at some point. The only real question is whether you find out.
Stage 20Performance: Making It Fast
Slow feels broken. Most slowness in AI-built apps comes from a handful of predictable causes.
Stage 21Deploying Your App to the World
Getting it off your machine and onto the internet, without a computer science degree.
Stage 22Get Found: Search and Sharing
A live app nobody can find is a private app. Here is the short list that makes you findable.
Stage 23Know If Anyone's Actually Using It
Guessing whether people use your app is miserable. Measuring it is easy — and you can do it without spying.
Stage 24Setting Up the Business Side
Company, tax number, liability, insurance, a separate bank account. What each one is for, and when it starts to matter.
Stage 25Getting Ready to Sell or Launch
What someone checks before they trust — or buy — what you built.
Phase 5
Mastery — Ongoing Growth
Open-ended and evergreen. Come back whenever the next thing is worth learning; new stages are added over time.
4 stages · about 56 min
Advanced Workflows and Automation
Once you have built a few things, the work becomes making the work repeatable.
Stage 27Build the Site Around Your App
An app with no page explaining it is a locked shop with the lights off.
Stage 28Building a Portfolio of Shipped Apps
One finished app teaches more than ten abandoned ones. Here is how to keep finishing.
Stage 29From Builder to Seller
What changes when someone pays you — and an honest look at where the marketplace stands today.
Phase 6
Build a Website — Start to Finish
One project from a plan on a notepad to a live address. Pick the kind of site you want and every stage rewrites its steps and prompts for it.
4 stages · about 57 min
Build a Website Start to Finish: the Plan
Before you ask an AI for a single page, decide who the site is for and what they should do next.
Stage 31Get the First Draft of Your Website on Screen
Hand the AI your plan, get every page in one go, and open it on your own machine.
Stage 32Fill Your Website With Real Words and Pictures
Replace every placeholder with true words in your own voice, and every stand-in image with a real one.
Stage 33Publish Your Website to a Real Address
Put the site on the internet, point a name at it, and check it the way a stranger will see it.
Phase 7
Build an App — Start to Finish
One small web app, planned, built a screen at a time, tested and handed to real people. Pick the kind of app and the instructions follow your choice.
5 stages · about 77 min
Build an App Start to Finish: the Plan
Name the one job your app does, the screens it needs, and what it has to remember.
Stage 35Build the First Working Version of Your App
One screen at a time, running on your machine, with a save point after each one works.
Stage 36Make Your App Save Data Safely
Where your app keeps what people type, and what that choice commits you to.
Stage 37Test Your App and Fix What Breaks
Try to break it before anyone else does, and write down the tests you will run every time.
Stage 38Launch Your App to Real People
Put it online, hand it to a few people you can talk to, and learn from what they actually do.