Ask HN: How could vibe coding show the code at a high level to non-programmers?

4 amichail 6 5/9/2025, 12:10:52 PM
That is, instead of just showing the user the code it wrote, is there a better way to show the program at a higher level that a non-programmer would understand (without just running it to show what happens)?

Comments (6)

skydhash · 3h ago
You can’t, because the reason the code exists is because you need its formality in order to eliminate ambiguity. Everytime code is explained without showing the code, there’s a baseline of understanding that’s required to filter the additional ambiguity.

The only approach left is to refer to the domain. As the person is familiar with it, you illustrate the behavior that is currently programmed by the system. The program itself should be a blackbox. Only knobs and sliders should be left (aka any professional software).

jefflinwood · 3h ago
I'm having the LLM work with human-readable behaviors for each component. You can have the LLM take those behaviors and create a Mermaid diagram, for instance.
amichail · 5h ago
Maybe the AI could capture video of program runs and then show the user representative small clips from these videos that depict distinct features?
FergusArgyll · 6h ago
Reverse engineer it into scratch? (or similar block-based beginner-friendly language, with comments)
collingreen · 5h ago
Visual programming
cranberryturkey · 6h ago
I always ask it to create some documentation.