From Vibe Coding to Production AI Coding in VS Code

When AI first showed up in our editors, most of us were "vibe coding" - poking at prompts, letting the model autocomplete half a file, and hoping it compiled.

Fun? Absolutely.
Production-ready? Not so much.

This talk tracks the evolution from that exploratory phase to a disciplined, repeatable workflow where AI is a serious part of the engineering toolchain rather than a clever autocomplete toy.

We will tour the latest AI-powered capabilities in VS Code: custom Agent modes, custom prompts, custom instructions, MCP backends, and the new "Plan" agent workflows that turn vague ideas into concrete, multi-step changes.

From there, we will zoom in on other techniques like Spec-Driven Development (SDD) with GitHub's Spec Kit - treating specifications as the single source of truth for both humans and AI coding agents. You will see how specs bootstrap repositories, generate plans and tasks, guide code and test generation, and evolve under version control alongside your codebase.

By the end, you will have a practical blueprint for moving from ad-hoc "let's see what the AI model does" sessions to a structured, plan-first development loop. We will focus on how to keep intent, implementation, and AI behavior aligned - so your next AI-assisted coded application ships faster, with fewer surprises, and is something you are not afraid to maintain six months later!

Speaker: Lance Larson

Location Sponsor: Concurrency
Food Sponsor: New Resources