When "Shipping Fast" Becomes Shipping Broken
A stealth startup building AI-powered solutions called me in panic mode.
Their flow builder—handling critical marketing, sales, and e-commerce workflows—was collapsing under its own weight. Features that took days to build now took weeks. Engineers were firefighting the same bugs twice. Product roadmap? Frozen.
The root cause? The previous developer's philosophy: "Ship now, architect later."
80% vibe coding. 20% monitoring.
It worked... until it didn't.
When Requirements Shift
When requirements shifted from "simple automation" to "complex branching logic, dynamic graph rendering, and state management across multiple platforms," the house of cards fell apart. Every new feature exposed architectural debt. DOM logic tangled with business logic. Graph state management was essentially guess-and-check.
The Rescue Audit
I came in for a rescue audit. After analyzing the codebase, the reality was clear: they needed to rewrite—but strategically. Over several months, we rebuilt with:
- Independent layers (presentation, logic, integration)
- Proper state management patterns
- Performance optimization (40% faster rendering)
- Multi-platform support (WordPress, custom APIs, webhooks)
- Documentation that didn't require reverse-engineering
The Lesson: Vibe Coding Has a Place... and a Dangerous Limit
✅ When vibe coding works:
- MVPs with 1-2 week timelines
- Throwaway prototypes to validate ideas
- Simple features with minimal integration points
❌ When it fails hard:
- Products where features compound and interconnect
- Systems needing long-term maintenance
- Multi-team collaboration at scale
- Complex state management
- Third-party integration requirements
The Cost of Cutting Corners
What started as a cost-saving measure ($5K saved upfront) became a $15K+ cleanup project and 3-month delay.
The truth: Cutting corners on architecture doesn't skip the work—it just postpones it with interest.
TL;DR
Vibe coding scales until it suddenly doesn't. On critical products, clean architecture isn't overhead—it's the only economics that work.
What's your experience? Have you seen vibe coding backfire? Or nail it on the right projects? Drop your take below—I'm genuinely curious where the line is for your team.