Beyond Vibe Coding
Introduction Having developed and deployed a number of offline-first Progressive Web Apps for personal use, I have had to confront several hard truths about the vibe coding. When observing software from the outside, it is easy to assume that quality of modern web development is defined primarily by a sleek, responsive user interface. But in practice, UI polish is often the easiest part of the workflow - especially today, when generative AI can scaffold responsive layouts in seconds. The true difficulty of building software lies beneath the surface: architectural resilience, data integrity, and real-world clinical utility. In clinical decision support, the technical architecture required to query a medication or check a drug interaction is relatively straightforward. A search bar, an index, and a modal dialog can be assembled in an afternoon. The true, monumental labour lies in accumulating, structuring, verifying, and curating the authoritative clinical source data. A colleague once a...