Track 1 of 4
Vibe Coding: from never-coded to shipped, in four weeks.
The point of this track is to graduate someone from "I can't code" to "I have a working scraper or webpage in production, and I can read the diff." No CS theory, no toy todo apps. You'll build something real on a real Irish site, with AI doing most of the typing and you doing the thinking.
What you'll learn
Vibe coding is the working method most people who ship things actually use in 2026, dressed up with a name. You describe what you want in plain English, the AI writes a first pass, you read it, you push back, you commit. The skill isn't typing code — the skill is being able to tell when the AI is wrong, decide what to do about it, and ship anyway.
By the end of four weeks, you will have:
- Installed and used Cursor as your primary editor — the AI does the boilerplate, you steer.
- Used GitHub for version control: commits, branches, pull requests. Not as theory; because you have something to commit.
- Deployed something to Vercel with a working URL you can text to your mum.
- Read your own scraper or page diff and explained what it does to your mentor — in plain English — without copy-pasting it into ChatGPT.
- Solved at least three problems where the AI was confidently wrong and you noticed.
The last bullet is the real reference-worthy skill. Anyone can prompt an AI; not everyone can catch it.
Cadence
Four weeks. One small shippable thing per week, building toward one bigger thing. Weekly check-in with your mentor, weekly cohort call.
Week 1
Setup + hello world. Install Cursor + git, get a GitHub account, deploy a one-page site to Vercel. Goal: a working URL by Friday.
Week 2
Scope your work. Pick the issue you're going to ship for your cohort. Sketch the data flow. First pull request, even if it's just the README.
Week 3
Build the thing. The bulk of the work. Pair-coding session with your mentor mid-week. Get unstuck publicly — it's the cohort's job to help.
Week 4
Ship + handoff. Production deploy, code review with mentor, write the handoff README. Reference paperwork signed.
What you'll ship in Cohort 1
If you take the Vibe Coding role in Cohort 1 (Carlow on localnews.ie), your shippable is one working scraper for one Carlow-local content source. Suggested targets:
- The Carlow County Council news page → weekly JSON feed in the localnews schema
- The Carlow County Council planning portal → JSON of new applications
- The Nationalist's RSS / latest-stories page → structured headlines feed
One source, one Python file, one weekly run. The mentor (Kali) runs it locally, gets clean JSON, wires it into the manifest. Your code, in production, the day it lands.
Example of what "shipped" looks likeThe Leitrim council news scraper that already feeds
localnews.ie is exactly this size and shape. A future Vibe Coding graduate's contribution will sit next to it.
Who this track is for
If you can describe in English what you want a computer to do and read a sentence carefully enough to spot when it's nonsense, you have everything you need. You do not need to:
- Know what a function is. You'll figure it out by week 2.
- Have used a terminal. You'll have a working terminal habit by Friday of week 1.
- Have any college background. The mentor never asks.
If you've already written code professionally, you'd be a better fit for the Civic Tech track — or come as a mentor for a future cohort.
Reference criteria
To graduate with a public reference at builtinireland.ie/references/<you>:
- 4 shipped issues (commits accepted into production) over 4 weeks
- 4 weekly check-ins attended
- Mentor sign-off
- 2-paragraph self-reflection (becomes the letter text)
The reference will name the cohort, name the project (e.g. "shipped the Carlow County Council news scraper for localnews.ie"), and link to your live code. See a sample →
Cohort 1 is open
The Vibe Coding role in Cohort 1 (Carlow / localnews.ie) is one of the slots we most want to fill, because it's the most rewarding to mentor.
Apply now →