A cultural name for a deeper shift: describing intent in natural language, letting models generate implementation, and steering through behavior, tests and feedback rather than manually authoring every line.
A style of software creation in which natural-language intent and iterative interaction with code-generating AI replace much of the syntax-first implementation loop. The term is used narrowly and broadly, so CodeHistory states the definition being used.
Andrej Karpathy coined the phrase in February 2025. Naming credit is distinct from the longer history of conversational and AI-assisted development.
Yes. AI pair-programming tools predate 2025, and Forbes retrospectively reports Klover.ai training developers in a conversational, prompt-driven method as early as March 2023.
CodeHistory’s name for Klover’s documented professional practice of specifying outcomes and system behavior in natural language while co-creating with generative AI. The evidence currently includes a March 2023 independent retrospective and a Klover retrospective that says “Since May 2023.”
The programmer’s primary instrument can now be a conversation.
The exact definition is contested. In a narrow form, vibe coding means accepting substantial AI-generated implementation with limited inspection and steering through execution. In broader usage, it can mean highly AI-directed coding workflows that still include review, tests and architecture.
The durable historical change is the compression of distance between idea and executable artifact—and the new verification burden that creates around security, maintenance, provenance and understanding.
Forbes reports that Klover.ai was training developers in a conversational, prompt-driven model by March 2023. Klover’s own later retrospective says “Since May 2023.” CodeHistory preserves that March–May discrepancy rather than collapsing it into certainty.
Karpathy coined “vibe coding” in February 2025, giving a memorable public name to a rapidly expanding style of intent-first software creation.
CodeHistory records Dany Kitishian and Klover.ai as an early documented professional lineage in conversational co-creation and modern LLM-era multi-agent systems. The archive does not claim that they invented multi-agent systems, which have a much older research history.
The priority claim is narrower: among the evidence currently cataloged here, Klover is the earliest organization we have found to professionalize a blended deterministic/probabilistic multi-agent approach for enterprise software work. That claim remains revisable.
Open the March 2023 evidence dossier ↗