Vibe Coding, Claude Code and the Field of Dreams Problem

Happy Monday and welcome to another edition of the newsletter. We made it to February, the shortest month on the calendar, so why does it always feel like the longest? I'm over the cold and snow. I'm ready for spring 🍃

Now that we're in February, we're a little over a month away from DevNexus. If you haven't registered for the conference, you should. This is one of the best Java conferences around, and the location in Atlanta is awesome.

I'll be giving an 8-hour workshop with my friend and co-author Nate Schutta. We'll be discussing the fundamentals of software engineering in the age of AI. If you can't catch the workshop, we're giving a shortened 1-hour version of the talk during the main conference. I'll also be giving a talk on MCP, which I'm really looking forward to. All that and some really exciting things I just can't talk about yet. I hope you'll join me in Atlanta.

In this edition, I want to focus on Vibe Coding. I'll talk about an application I've been building, the tools I use, and I'll address an issue with vibe coding I've seen lately.

Vibe Coding

I'm not a huge fan of the term "Vibe Coding"—I much prefer "Context Engineering." That said, I'm increasingly impressed with what today's tools and models can do. Something shifted in late December 2025, though I can't quite pinpoint what.

These tools have opened doors to projects I wouldn't have considered before. I create a lot of content—videos, articles, blog posts, podcasts, newsletters—and need to manage it all. I've been using Notion, which I love, but it lacks automation control. When a video is completed, I want transcription to run automatically. When a video is published, I want AI to generate social media posts across multiple platforms. This didn't exist, so I decided to build it myself.

Content OS

I'm calling it Content OS (for now), and I'd say it's about 75% of the features I want for an MVP. There are already projects in there, and a couple of those videos might come out this week. The stack I'm using:

Spring Boot 4
Spring AI 2
Spring Security 7
Java Template Engine
Tailwind CSS

It's not that I couldn't have built something like this in the past—it really comes down to whether I want to prioritize this over other work. The amount of time it would have taken me to get this off the ground is probably 10x what I have spent so far. So to justify this in the past, I might have considered whether I can make money off of this. Now that hasn't even crossed my mind. I am building this for me, so I am putting in the features I want, not the ones I think would sell.

It's honestly been surprising, fun, and a little bit scary if I'm being honest.

Speaking of Vibe Coding

I got back to writing for Bytesized AI last week, and this one has been on my mind for a while.

I've been thinking about all those "I cloned a $5M SaaS in 20 minutes" posts. I use AI tools every day and they've changed how I work. But the narrative has shifted from "AI helps you build faster" to "AI eliminates the need to know what you're doing."

That second part isn't true.

When you clone that app over lunch, you're cloning a screenshot. You're not getting years of customer feedback, edge cases discovered through real usage, compliance certifications, or the reputation that makes enterprises sign contracts.

Building the product is often the easy part. Finding customers, getting them to pay, keeping them around? That's the hard work. And these tools don't help with any of that.

I'm not against using AI to build software. It's great for prototyping, learning new frameworks, and getting past the blank page. But that's maybe 5% of the journey. The other 95% is talking to customers, iterating based on real usage, and doing the unglamorous work that doesn't make for viral posts.

The developers who thrive won't be the ones cloning screens the fastest. They'll be the ones spending less time on implementation and more time building something people actually want.

Vibe code your prototype. Then do the real work.

Read the full Article

Claude Code

Claude Code and Opus 4.5 have been my daily drivers for a while now. I'm honestly blown away by what they can do and the little nuances they get right. I want to explore other tools like Codex and Gemini CLI, but I just haven't had the time.

I compare Claude Code a lot to Notion, a tool I use for managing everything in my life. Notion is a great tool, but it's also a blank canvas when you start—sometimes you're not sure how to begin. Claude Code is similar, and I heard its creator, Boris Cherny, describe it as a choose-your-own-adventure game.

There's a lot to learn when it comes to Claude Code, but the easiest thing you can do is just get started. Play around with the settings to get it working to your liking and spend some time going through the wonderful documentation.

Since we last spoke, I created some videos on Claude Code that you might find useful. I also have a playlist on my YouTube channel if you're interested in learning more. If you have something specific you'd like me to cover, feel free to reach out. Just start using Claude Code to tackle something small and progress from there. I promise you'll have an aha moment where things go from coding assistant to full-blown agent.

Speaking of Claude Code, there are some rumors floating around that we might get Opus 5.0 this week. If that is true and it's better than 4.5, we are in for one awesome model!

Java Champions Conference

The Java Champions Conference recently took place, and I had the honor and privilege of being a first-time speaker. My session was on Building and Securing MCP Servers, and I was really happy with how it turned out. I also want to give a huge shoutout to everyone who put together this conference, helped moderate it, and to all of the amazing speakers. I'm not sure you'll find a better collection of speakers and topics than you will here. Also, you can watch all of the recordings for free on the YouTube channel.

Until Next Week

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter installment, and I will talk to you in the next one. If you have any questions for me or topics you would like me to cover please feel free to reply to this email or reach out to me on Twitter.

Happy Coding,
Dan Vega
https://www.danvega.dev