2026-02-02
Vibes and Bugs
I had Claude build a terminal manager that works and looks very much like a web browser. I find the tab structure, the ability to bookmark and the idea of being able to do sftp right next to my terminal wonderful.
This is purely vibecoded meaning that there isn't a single line of code that I've actually looked at and so far I've been lucky in that there have been no critical bugs that forced me to view the source.
The bug this post is for is probably the closest I've gotten to having to actually understand the code but luckily was able to get away. I believe had I written the application, this bug probably wouldn't have came up.
The way it manifested itself was when I used my custom editor, EVA and spammed Page Up. I would get weird page jumps and line numbers would get crossed. If I refresh or move around the page, stuff would sort itself out but it was big enough issue that I couldn't use my terminal with my editor.
I tried to explain the issue with copy and paste of what I see and with words but ultimately Claude wasn't able to figure anything out.
I added in a debug terminal that would capture exactly what was being rendered and was then able to get a good capture of exactly what was happening. Claude after seeing the trace, immediately figured it out. The bug was that were too many screen paints and they were getting interleaved. The fix was to wait a few milliseconds and to combine everything. This way the next frame would get loaded in one short rather than as each read suceeded.
This proved to be the solution and now my editor is back to working and I can comfortably use it.
This was very much a problem because I didn't have the right words to describe my issue and it required Claude to build out a debugging function so that I could get enough data to feed it. I think going forward I'll need to be cognizant of having built in debugging as I think it's already proven to be deeply useful.
On another note, this is the kind of bug that I would really liked to find myself and fix. I however also have an application that I really like using and one that probably wouldn't exist without Claude.
Tomato, Tomato.