Vibe coding vs agentic engineering: the difference is whether you read the code

The short answer

Vibe coding and agentic engineering are two names for the same thing — letting AI write your software — separated by one habit: whether you read and review the code. Andrej Karpathy coined "vibe…

Vibe coding — you don't look at the code the AI writes

Agentic engineering — you direct the AI and review its output

Same activity — the difference is oversight, not the tool

For you — the upgrade is a habit (reading, verifying), not a word

The one-sentence version

Vibe coding is letting the AI build it and not looking; agentic engineering is letting the AI build it and looking. You can switch from one to the other today, in the same tool, by reading what it…