How to vibe code at work without your colleagues hating you

It seems like vibe coding is everywhere these days. It’s become the latest developer trend— fueled by Twitter threads about people vibe-coding entire startups in a weekend.

While it can be fun to vibe code your hobby projects — you might feel tempted to bring that chaotic, spontaneous AI-powered energy into the workplace. Be warned: your teammates probably won’t share your enthusiasm when they're forced to review massive, confusing, and buggy code dumps.

To illustrate this problem for all those tempted to ‘vibe’ at work, we created a comic. The Vibes Are Off features Zig, the office vibe coder, submitting an enormous PR to his beleaguered colleague, Grumpster. Poor Grumpster spends two soul-crushing days cleaning it up, only for the CTO to publicly praise Zig for saving a few hours coding. Grumpster? Well, he’s left quietly dying inside.

Read it here:

pdf='https://victorious-bubble-f69a016683.media.strapiapp.com/Harecompressed_910f61fa09.pdf'

At CodeRabbit, we don’t think that code reviews should cause anyone to begin a decades-long quest for vengeance. That’s why we’re launching a Code Review Etiquette series. Our first order of business? Prevent vibe coders from becoming the most hated developers at their companies.

Edit your code, don't just vibe & pull request

Look, we get it. It feels amazing to watch your AI coding assistant spit out an entire app from a vaguely worded prompt. But we beg you: don’t commit it straight into your PR. AI-generated code is notoriously verbose and loves sprinkling in little surprises like pointless loops or imaginary functions that don’t exist in your libraries.

Take the time to actually read the AI’s output before passing the pain onto your teammates. And once you’re done? Read it again. And then read it yet another time.

Refactor awkward functions, clean out those random bits of nonsense, and check whether your assistant hallucinated APIs (it happens more than you think!). In other words, do the minimum required to ensure that your colleagues won't wish you ill.

This way, your colleagues won’t dread seeing your PR pop up – and you might just avoid becoming the reason they DM each other vibe coding memes.

Avoid ginormous PRs

Nothing sparks immediate workplace rage like a PR that reads “+11,374, -3.” If your AI assistant just handed you a PR that could rival the length of War and Peace, you've officially violated every known rule of code review etiquette. The developer equivalent of Emily Post is now very mad at you.

Massive PRs aren’t just annoying—they guarantee that reviewers will miss important issues and send bugs into production. Instead, split your vibe-coded masterpiece into smaller, digestible pieces. You know, like you’d want to receive it.

Even if the AI assistant gave you the entire feature in one go, be kind and break it into logical chunks before subjecting your colleagues to a review so endless that it will leave them feeling like they’re in a Black Mirror episode where time has somehow looped.

Trust us, your teammates will appreciate the effort and you’ll spare yourself some passive-aggressive comments or an immediate ‘Request Changes.’

Ensure your code meets org style and standards

Your organization’s style guide and coding standards aren’t just ‘suggestions.’ Just because the AI you vibe-coded with decided camelCase and snake_case look beautiful together doesn’t mean your colleagues agree. Leaving style issues for your reviewers to clean up is a sure way to build resentment faster than npm builds node_modules.

Make sure your vibe-generated code matches the established style. Yes, it might be boring. Yes, it takes slightly more time. But remember, your colleagues didn’t sign up to debug your assistant’s latest avant-garde variable naming schemes.

Get AI to review in your IDE

If you insist on vibe coding, then at least have the decency to enlist an AI assistant to do the heavy lifting of cleaning up your code first. At CodeRabbit, we now offer AI-driven reviews right inside your IDE (and for free too!). It will catch embarrassing bugs, obvious mistakes, and nonsensical logic that you might miss. And all before a human reviewer even sees it and adjusts their opinion of you down a few notches.

Running these preliminary reviews shows respect for your teammates’ time. It’s the ultimate act of empathy: a robot criticizing you now so your colleagues won’t have to later.

And if you just really enjoy passive aggressive comments from annoyed developers for some reason, don’t worry! You can customize CodeRabbit’s tone to add comments in the same frustrated tone your teammates would!

Warn your colleagues (& thank them after)

If you’re going to unleash AI-generated code into your teammates’ lives – you might want to at least warn them in advance. A quick Slack message saying something like, “Heads up, vibe-coded PR incoming!” lets your team brace themselves mentally (or emotionally). You can even add a few sheepish emojis. We suggest these: 🫣🫠😳.

Even better, acknowledge upfront that your PR might contain more WTFs than usual. After your colleagues spend hours untangling your AI’s bizarre logic (or less time if they also enlist an AI reviewer like CodeRabbit to do a first pass), don’t forget to thank them – even if it’s just in grateful replies to their frustrated comments. Gratitude goes a long way toward smoothing over any vibe-induced frustration.

Code review best practices: Vibe responsibly!

Vibe coding is here to stay – at least as long as AI tools keep getting smarter and developers keep writing multi-part threads on social media. While there’s nothing wrong with experimenting and having fun, your teammates shouldn’t have to suffer for your AI-assisted sins.

If you follow these basic etiquette rules – editing and reviewing before committing, respecting your company’s standards, and warning people before you drop an AI-fueled PR bomb—you might just avoid becoming the most hated dev at your company. Plus, you’ll actually end up producing better code!

Or you could ignore all this advice, keep vibe coding recklessly, and earn yourself a starring role in your office’s most pointed private jokes. But don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Want to sign up for free code reviews in VS Code, Cursor, or Windsurf? Go here!