Vibecoding On‑Chain — Using AI to Prototype Solidity Contracts (Safely)

Source: Dev.to

I used to open Remix, stare at a blank Solidity file, and freeze. No idea where to start. So I did what everyone says: “just write more code.” I copied patterns from tutorials, tweaked a few lines, hit Deploy…

And still felt like I wasn’t actually learning how smart contracts worked.

The weird part?

• It wasn’t a lack of practice.
• It was how I was practicing.

One day I tried something different:

• I stopped starting from scratch and started “vibecoding” with AI instead.
• Not to cheat, but to see what would happen if I treated AI as a rough‑sketch artist and myself as the editor.

That experiment turned into today’s article.

This is Day 28 of the 60‑Day Web3 journey, still in Phase 3: Development.
The goal for today is to understand what “vibecoding” is, how to use AI tools to scaffold Solidity contracts, and how to review and harden that code so it’s actually safe to deploy.

What is “vibecoding” in Web3?

Vibecoding is the idea of building from vibes and prompts instead of blank files: you describe what you want in natural language and let an AI tool generate the first version of your code.

In Web3, that means using AI to scaffold Solidity contracts, test cases, or even full dApp skeletons so you can iterate on ideas much faster.

Mindset shift

AI becomes a collaborator that handles boilerplate while you stay in charge of architecture, safety, and product thinking.

Why vibecoding is perfect after the basics

In the last two days you:

• Learned Solidity syntax, variables, functions, and how contracts expose state.
• Upgraded your Web3 Journey Logger with arrays, mappings, structs, and events to handle multiple entries and multiple users.

Now vibecoding lets you:

• Turn that knowledge into better prompts (e.g., “use mapping(address => Entry[]) with a struct” instead of “write an NFT for me”).
• Use AI as a partner: it writes boilerplate; you handle reviews, invariants, and edge cases.
• Practice reading and critiquing Solidity—one of the most important skills for DevRel, audits, or technical content.

You’re not skipping learning; you’re using AI to remove grunt work so you can spend more time understanding what the code actually does.

How to prompt AI for a contract

Good vibecoding starts with good prompts. A vague “write a staking contract” is a recipe for weird, unsafe code.

A solid prompt usually:

1. Describes the goal of the contract.
2. Specifies the data model (structs, mappings, arrays).
3. Mentions events and access control.
4. States the Solidity version.

Example prompt

“Write a Solidity 0.8.x contract called StudyBuddy where:
– users can log study sessions with topic (string) and minutes (uint256)
– each user can record many sessions
– use a struct Session { string topic; uint256 minutes; } and mapping(address => Session[])
– emit an event whenever a new session is logged
– include view functions to read a user’s total sessions and a session by index
– avoid using tx.origin, and use SPDX + a recent 0.8 compiler pragma”

This prompt pushes the AI toward patterns you already understand from the Journey Logger V2, just in a different context.

Example: vibecoding a StudyBuddy contract

Assume you feed the prompt above into your AI tool. A reasonable output might look like this:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.20;

contract StudyBuddy {
    struct Session {
        string topic;
        uint256 minutes;
    }

    mapping(address => Session[]) private sessionsByUser;

    event SessionLogged(
        address indexed user,
        string topic,
        uint256 minutes,
        uint256 index
    );

    function logSession(string calldata _topic, uint256 _minutes) external {
        Session memory newSession = Session({topic: _topic, minutes: _minutes});
        sessionsByUser[msg.sender].push(newSession);

        uint256 index = sessionsByUser[msg.sender].length - 1;
        emit SessionLogged(msg.sender, _topic, _minutes, index);
    }

    function getSession(address _user, uint256 _index)
        external
        view
        returns (string memory topic, uint256 minutes)
    {
        require(_index < sessionsByUser[_user].length, "Index out of bounds");
        Session storage s = sessionsByUser[_user][_index];
        return (s.topic, s.minutes);
    }
}

Note: If the AI invents something you’ve never seen anywhere else, treat it with suspicion. Ask why it made that choice, or explicitly prompt it to follow a known pattern.

Rule 3: Add Tests and Manual Review

Even for small demo contracts, aim for:

Unit tests (or Foundry/Hardhat tests) that

• Call each function with typical inputs.
• Try edge cases (index out of bounds, zero values, maximum values).
• Check that events are emitted correctly.

Manual reasoning about

• Who can call each function and what they can change.
• How data grows over time (could someone spam storage?).
• Whether there are any hidden assumptions (e.g., “one user will only have a few sessions”).

AI is great at generating draft code and even draft tests, but humans are responsible for understanding the behavior and risks.

How Vibecoding Helps You as a Learner and Future DevRel

For someone aiming at DevRel or technical education, vibecoding is a super‑power:

• Prototype tutorials faster: generate a demo contract, then turn the act of reviewing/fixing it into content.
• Debugging AI sharpens your Solidity mental model: every mistake you catch improves your understanding.
• Build empathy for beginners: many new devs will rely heavily on AI; your role can be showing them how to use it safely instead of blindly trusting it.

A reusable content pattern

1. Start from a plain‑English idea (e.g., “I want to track X on‑chain”).
2. Prompt AI for a contract.
3. Walk through the code in an article or video, highlighting:
   • What’s good.
   • What’s missing.
   • What you changed before deploying.
4. Deploy the improved version to a testnet and give readers a challenge to extend it.

By doing this, you position yourself not just as “someone who writes Solidity,” but as a guide who helps others navigate the new AI‑assisted way of building.

Further Reading

• Solidity Docs – Contracts & Security Considerations
• OpenZeppelin Contracts – Reference Implementations & Guides
• Cyfrin Updraft – Using AI to Help with Solidity Development
• Paradigm – Smart Contract Security & Best Practices
• Solidity AI CodeGen – AI‑Assisted Solidity Templates (CredShields)

Follow the series on:

• Medium
• Twitter
• Future

Join the conversation on Telegram: Web3ForHumans – we’ll brainstorm Web3 together.