What is Vibe Coding?
Vibe coding is building software by talking to AI. You describe what you want, the AI writes and debugs the code. No boilerplate, no manual wiring. Tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf make this the default way to build. But every session starts from scratch. Your AI doesn't remember your stack, your conventions, or the bugs you already fixed. SynaBun solves this with persistent vector memory that carries context across sessions.
How SynaBun Makes Vibe Coding Work
SynaBun isn't just a memory server. It gives your AI an entire workspace: a visual whiteboard it draws on to plan architecture, a real headed Chrome browser it controls to test your UI and read documentation, a terminal it runs commands in, and a task board it updates as it works. You describe the feature. It opens the tools and builds it.
The whiteboard lets your AI sketch component trees and data flows before writing a single line of code. You see the plan, not just the output. The browser opens real pages, fills forms, clicks buttons, takes screenshots, and reports what it sees. The terminal runs your dev server, installs packages, and checks build output. Task cards track progress automatically — no Jira, no manual updates.
Works With Every MCP-Compatible Tool
SynaBun connects to Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, OpenCode, Cursor, Windsurf, ChatGPT, and any tool that supports MCP. Install once, connect any AI, and all 106 tools are instantly available. Your memory is shared across models — context from a Claude session is accessible to Codex and vice versa. Dedicated sidepanels ship for Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode. Custom multi-runtime skills let you chain tools into reusable workflows. Lifecycle hooks auto-capture architecture decisions without manual prompting.
Everything runs locally on your machine. SQLite stores your memory, Transformers.js generates embeddings, and Playwright controls the browser. No cloud accounts, no API keys for core features, no data leaving your infrastructure. One npx command to install. Zero configuration required.
Read more about vibe coding workflows on the SynaBun blog: Bring Your Own CLI covers connecting any editor to SynaBun, OpenCode + Ollama shows how to vibe code with fully local AI, and Loops and Agents from Hell explores autonomous agent workflows that run while you sleep.
A Vibe Coding Session, Step by Step
Open the IDE. Tell the AI what you want: "Add OAuth login with GitHub. Match the existing auth flow." The AI calls recall for prior auth decisions, finds the JWT middleware notes from last sprint, opens the existing login route in the editor, drafts the OAuth handler, runs the test suite, fixes the one broken assertion, and writes a commit message that links to the original decision. You read the diff, ask follow-ups, ship the feature. No StackOverflow tabs, no documentation hunt, no copy-paste from prior projects. The memory carries everything between conversations.
Lifecycle hooks make memory capture invisible. SynaBun ships 7 Claude Code hooks that fire on session start, prompt submit, tool use, session end, and compaction events. They auto-recall related context at the start of every prompt and auto-store any architectural decisions the AI surfaces during the conversation. The 5 binding directives include user learning, so the system also picks up on how you communicate and adapts over time without you writing a single configuration line.
Memory Recall in 30 Seconds
// On session start the hook fires:
recall({ query: "$projectName recent decisions", limit: 8 })
// During session, when AI commits a fix:
remember({
content: "Fixed timezone drift in /api/events — server normalizes to UTC before writing to Postgres",
category: "bug-fixes",
importance: 6,
tags: ["timezone", "postgres", "events-api"],
related_files: ["src/api/events.ts", "src/lib/time.ts"]
})
// Three days later, next session:
recall({ query: "events api timezone bugs" })
// Returns memory above plus surrounding context.
Recall is semantic — query doesn't need to match the original wording. "events api timezone bugs" finds the memory written as "timezone drift in /api/events." That's the difference between vector embeddings and keyword search: meaning, not strings.
Vibe Coding vs Agentic Coding
Vibe coding is the human-in-the-loop conversational style — you talk, AI builds, you review. Agentic coding is the autonomous variant — you describe an outcome, the agent runs unattended until it ships. SynaBun supports both from the same install. Same 106 tools, same memory layer, same browser. Switch styles by switching the prompt. See the agentic coding page for the autonomous side, or compare for how SynaBun stacks against other AI memory and agent tools.
For the unhinged backstage of vibe coding workflows that worked, read Rage-Driven UI Development, the war story of Skinning Claude Code in 6 Days, and the launch announcement at Built by AI, Documented by AI.