well... it's happening

miron
July 18, 2025

hey friend,

This is issue number 9, and two months ago it was just me, a single Reddit post, and a wild plan to “vibe-code” in public. Today 3,160 sharp minds open this email. I chat with 20-30 of you every week about feature prompts, busted builds, or why Cursor suddenly hates you. Thank you for reading words that start messy in my head, get sand-blasted by AI polish, and land here each Friday.

Today’s note does two things:

Sketch where I think the AI-coding landscape is heading now that every tech giant has dropped an agent.
Publicly announce the Vibe Code Lab community—a private room for 50 builders who want signal instead of Discord noise.
And AI Prompting Bonus at the end of this issue.

Let’s dive in.

The AI Shift

New “AI IDEs” appear every week—Cursor, Lovable (raised $200M last week), WindSurf—and now the megacorps are on the field:

Microsoft Copilot Studio now ships inside VS Code.
Google Gemini Code Assist just rolled into Cloud IDE.
Amazon’s Kiro (spec-driven, doc-first assistant) enters preview.
Apple keeps hinting at an on-device Xcode agent.
New money: Orchids closed a fresh round to build multi-agent “workflows as code.” also there is another similar tool called Blink.

Under the hood they all share the same foundation models; the fight is for experience and context. Your edge is no longer a fatter GPU bill—it’s how clearly you speak to the model and how tight your prompt-to-production loop is. I haven’t written raw code in months—just structured prompts, safety rails, and a few battle-tested rituals that keep hallucinations out of prod. Learn the dialects (GPT-4o, Claude-Sonnet, Gemini-1.5, Grok-4) and you can still outrun teams ten times your size.

Seen this week

OpenAI – ChatGPT Agent Mode merges web, code, and reasoning into a single multi-step agent.
Thinking Machines – Mira Murati’s new startup raises $2B (valuation now $10 B) to build autonomous biz-decision agents.
Amazon Kiro – launches a spec-first development environment that generates architecture, tests, and docs before a single line of code.
xAI Grok-4 – unveiled as “the smartest AI in the world,” premium Heavy mode runs a multi-agent stack at $300 / month. Btw I’m still using Claude-4 for coding tasks.

Private Vibe Code Lab Community

I’m building a private room for 50 AI founders and vibe-coders.

Why only fifty? Small rooms breed trust. I want a cohort where everyone knows each other’s project, cheers the wins, and calls out the excuses.

Inside you’ll get:

Lifetime access to every current and future guide—no upsells.
Weekly live calls: prompt tear-downs, stack autopsies, accountability check-ins.
An async channel where questions actually get answers.
Member-only experiments: early Cursor agent recipes, LLM bench data, design prompt libraries.
One shared goal: ship, collect revenue, iterate.

How to claim a seat

Hit reply to this email with “I’m in.” I’ll add you to the early list—first replies get first dibs and the launch-day discount. When the 50 spots are gone, the door closes.

My personal guides — two out, two cooking

Out now:

Zero → Launched: The AI-Powered Solo Builder Guide (23 pages, 62 sales) – a complete solo-builder playbook that covers prompt flows, stack setup, and launch-ready systems.
AI Debugging & Refactor Playbook (7 pages, 17 sales) – the ritual I use to spot hallucinations, test with confidence, and keep tech debt tame in AI-assisted repos.

Both are still cheaper than a Milanese croissant until the community opens—after that the price heads north. Buy them now or grab the bundle when the Circle drops.

Coming next:

Vibe Design Guide – AI-first UI that doesn’t scream “template”.
AI SEO Playbook – a deeper dive into the LLM-traffic framework from last week’s issue.

AI Prompting Bonus — “Soft Gradient 3D Collectibles” Prompt

I promised a little extra juice, so here’s the exact prompt I’ve been using to spin flat icons into soft-gradient, 3-D collectibles in under 30 seconds. Copy-paste it into GPT-4o’s image mode, attach any SVG or transparent PNG, and watch it pop. I’ve used the output for UI badges, brand swag, and fast social graphics.

Retexture the image attached based on the JSON below:

{
  "style_name": "Soft Minimal 3D Plastic",
  "retexture_mode": "shape_lock",
  "object_analysis": {
    "preserve_silhouette": true,
    "geometry_sensitive_mapping": true,
    "detail_retention": "flatten complex details into simplified geometry blocks"
  },
  "material_properties": {
    "base_material": [
      "smooth matte plastic",
      "metallic edge trim with satin finish",
      "semi-reflective black screen surface"
    ],
    "surface_details": [
      "subtle color gradient",
      "rounded bevels and corners",
      "soft transition between surfaces"
    ]
  },
  "lighting": {
    "type": "soft gradient ambient light",
    "shadows": "minimal, soft-edged shadows",
    "highlights": "diffused, low-intensity reflections"
  },
  "background": {
    "color": "pastel gradient (blue to cream)",
    "texture": "smooth and untextured",
    "elements": "clean background with no added geometry"
  },
  "rendering": {
    "style": "isometric 3D render",
    "resolution": "high, with slight bloom",
    "focus": "central object, no depth blur"
  },
  "color_palette": {
    "primary": ["cool grey", "steel blue", "soft charcoal"],
    "accents": ["light lavender", "pastel yellow"]
  }
}

more coming next week.
until then:

stay caffeinated.
lead the machine.
launch anyway.

☀️ Miron