Git good with Vibe Coding

Vibes are great. Flow is great. But when Claude decides to “help” by deleting your login code so one unit test goes green, you either reload from a clean save… or you spend the night untangling “undo the undo” in fourteen tabs. Git is your save system. Use it after each completed prompt vibe.

Review, commit, push. Breathe.

What Git Actually Is

Think of Git as a time machine for your project that lives inside your folder and in the cloud.

Snapshots, not scraps. Every commit is a full snapshot of what matters, content-addressed and hashed, so Git can tell with math when things changed. It’s not “copy the folder”; it’s smarter.
A graph of decisions. Commits form a little map of your project’s history (a DAG). That map lets you move around: go back in time, branch off to try an idea, merge it when it works.
Local first, cloud second. You get history instantly on your machine, even offline. Then you push to a remote (GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket) so a coffee spill doesn’t erase your career.
Cheap branches. Trying something risky shouldn’t endanger main. Branches are near-free. If your experiment fails, you toss the branch. Main stays clean.

If you only remember one thing: each commit is a checkpoint you can reload. Make more checkpoints.

Why Git is #1 for Source Control

Speed and safety for experiments.
- You’re prompting, accepting large edits, renames, file moves. Git handles this chaos without flinching. Fast diffs. Fast branches. Fast merges.
Decent at merges, great at conflict visibility.
- When your IDE or AI rewrites files you didn’t even open, Git shows you exactly what changed and where. You decide what stays.
Works everywhere.
- Every modern IDE bakes it in. CI/CD expects it. Your teammates expect it. Your future contracts will require it.
Offline sanity.
- Plane mode? Hotel Wi-Fi? You can still commit, branch, review your history. Push later.
Ecosystem gravity.
- Code review, PRs, actions, checks, templates, hooks. Git is the default for modern software workflow.

The Beginner Mental Model

Working tree: your actual files right now.
Staging area: the “are you sure?” tray. Pick the changes you want in this snapshot.
Repository: the internal history. Every commit lives here.
Remote: the cloud copy. Same history, shared with teammates and your future self on another machine.

Flow you can follow in any IDE:

Do a “vibe” pass. Get to a stable point.
Open the Git panel. Review the diff. That’s the truth.
Stage the meaningful changes. Leave noisy junk out.
Write a clear message. Think “I would reload to here.”
Click Commit. Then Push. Done.

No terminal required. The buttons are right there.

What to Commit (and when)

After every completed vibe. A small, cohesive improvement. App starts. Tests not exploding. You’d reload to this.
Group related changes. Rename pass? That’s a commit. Adding auth callback? Another commit. Fixing edge case? Another.
Keep secrets out. .env, keys, local data. Your IDE’s Git integration will help you ignore these.

Good commit messages are tiny documentation:

Scope + action: “auth: restore callback handler; keep session on refresh”
Optional bullets: why it changed, any caveats

You’re writing for future-you. Be kind.

Branches: the padded room for bad ideas

When you’re about to let the AI refactor half the project, branch first. If the idea pays off, merge. If not, delete. Main stays healthy. Your demo stays alive.

This is the difference between “I tried something” and “I rolled a grenade under main.”

“But my IDE can undo”

Until it can’t. Undo dies when the editor restarts, the file is closed, or the changes exceed history. Git doesn’t forget. Also: undo is a blind fold. Git diffs are a glass wall.

Real-life failure you can dodge

The Vanishing Login: AI “optimizes” your “unused” AuthService to make a test pass. With Git: revert the bad snapshot or pluck the correct file from a prior commit. Without Git: archaeology, panic, Slack apology.
The Rename Cascade: You accept a “smart” rename and three imports break off-screen. With Git: review the diff, fix, checkpoint. Without Git: mystery bugs for hours.

Remote or it didn’t happen

Local history protects you from your own experiments. Remote protects you from everything else. Laptop dies. SSD flips bits. You spill cold brew. Remote is where your save slots live when the physical world fights back.

Pick anything: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket. Private repo if closed source. Push often.

FAQs you’re secretly thinking

Do I need Git if I’m solo?
Yes. You and you-from-Tuesday are two different developers with different opinions and memory. Git is how you communicate across time.

How detailed should commits be?
Small enough to understand in one sip of coffee. Big enough to represent a real step forward.

What if I messed up already?
Start now. Make your next checkpoint. You don’t need perfect history; you need a habit.