AI-coding market reaches point where vibecoders seek vibecoders to fix code from other vibecoders

A job listing recently appeared on freelance platform Upwork that perfectly illustrates the state of AI development industry in 2025 – a client is looking for a vibecoder to finish an app that a previous vibecoder brought to "75% completion." The previous contractor suddenly discovered they "don't have time" to finish the work – apparently right around the moment they realized the depth of their own incompetence.

The listing states:

We have unfinished project on github that was previously vibecoded to around 75% of completion, previous vibecoder dont have time to finalize it. We will share documentation and goals so you can utilize AI and your skills to finalize it.

Particularly amusing is the offer to create a personal API key for the contractor so they don't have to use their own.

The vibecoding community on Reddit immediately held a funeral procession for this posting:

Looking for an uncertified surgeon to fix the botched surgery my first uncertified surgeon performed. 

Another added:

Looking for an uncertified structural engineer to fix house that has fallen over itself because of the previous vibe engineer.

Worth noting that the term "vibecoding" was coined by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy just a year ago – in February 2024. The idea is simple: instead of writing code manually, a developer describes the task in natural language and AI generates the code. It sounded revolutionary, and thousands of people rushed to create apps using Claude, Cursor and other tools.

The problem emerged fairly quickly. As one developer put it:

75% complete = -20% complete. It'll probably take longer to unravel whatever BS has been done so far than just starting fresh.

Code created through vibecoding has a tendency to work right up until the moment something needs to be changed. Each fix breaks something else, AI suggests new patches that break even more – and the developer ends up in what's called an "entropy loop."

I'm stuck in what I call an entropy loop. Vibecoding stopped producing results and moving forward. Every fix created new bugs or broke something else. I'm knee-deep in fragile, incoherent code that I didn't write and don't want to debug.

The situation has spawned an entire industry. On Upwork you can now find freelancers who specialize in "fixing vibecoded apps." One such specialist's profile states:

Many AI-built apps break due to broken logic, security holes, poor structure, and deployment errors. I specialize in fixing vibecoded apps, cleaning up messy AI code, and turning unfinished ideas into working products.

Thread commenters were particularly amused by another listing requiring 2+ years of vibecoding experience. Given that the term itself is barely over a year old, the requirement seems ambitious at minimum. LinkedIn has meanwhile announced official vibecoding certificates – now you can demonstrate your prompt engineering skill level to employers.

As experienced programmers noted, one of the main advantages of AI tools is that they allow people to create something even if they have no ideas or knowledge.

At the same time, one of the main disadvantages of AI tools is that they allow people to create something even if they have no ideas or knowledge.

This leads to people taking on projects that wouldn't even be worth starting without AI. Meanwhile, the vast majority of vibecoding apps never even launch, meaning energy and resources were wasted.

Of course, there's hope that AI will eventually reach a level where it can "think" logically and write truly quality code, but we haven't reached that singularity point yet and don't even really know how to endow modern models with logical reasoning capabilities.