AI Coding Loop: How to Stop Spinning and Ship
If you build with vibe‑coding, no‑code, or AI app generation, you’ve likely met the AI coding loop. You ask the tool to fix one issue, it changes three other things, and now the sign‑up screen looks different and a button stopped working. You try another prompt, the layout shifts again, and hours later you have more changes but not a better app. The loop feels busy, but it does not move you toward launch.
What the loop looks like in real life
The loop sneaks in when you keep “almost fixing” a problem. A broken form becomes a redesign of the entire page. A copy tweak turns into a new navigation. You run the app again and discover the first bug is still there, plus two new ones. Users churn when nothing stable ships, and features you promised keep slipping because you are nursing changes instead of releasing them.
Common symptoms include:
- Screens that change appearance from one session to the next for no clear reason
- A feature that “nearly works” for days without reaching done
- Quick wins that break old paths you thought were safe
- A feeling that you must try “one more prompt” before testing with users
Why AI tools fall into the loop
Vibe‑coding is powerful because you can ask for big improvements with a single prompt, but that same power can scatter the AI’s attention. When your prompt includes several goals, the model tries to satisfy them all at once, touching unrelated parts of the app and creating new changes to review. Over time, this drift piles up and makes it harder to see whether the product is getting better for real users.
The loop also appears when the goal is fuzzy. “Make it cleaner” can mean new spacing, different colors, or a wholesale rewrite. Without a single outcome to test—such as “the sign‑up completes with valid email and password”—you get motion, not progress.
Simple rules that break the cycle
You do not need a heavy process to escape the loop. You need clear outcomes, smaller steps, and a habit of testing with real clicks instead of reading code.
- Choose one outcome per prompt. Example: “Let a new user sign up and land on the dashboard with a welcome message.”
- Ask for small, reviewable changes. Keep diffs tight so you can see what moved.
- Click through after every change. Do the action a user would do and note what still feels wrong.
- Park ideas that are not critical. Keep a short list so you do not cram extra requests into the next prompt.
This rhythm turns limitless generation into a series of steady improvements that you can show to customers.
A practical flow for vibe‑coding sessions
Start with a single path, such as “new user signs up and sees a checklist.” Ask for the smallest change that unblocks that path. Run the app. If it works, write down the next gap you notice—perhaps an error message needs clarity—and prompt only for that. If it fails, paste the error text into the next prompt and ask for a targeted fix. Repeat until the path is done, then move to the next one.
Along the way, remember that words matter. Concrete language beats buzzwords. “Add a red error under the password field when it is too short” gets better results than “improve validation.” When you must change multiple files, tell the AI which screens or flows are in scope and which ones must remain untouched.
How to know you are out of the loop
You will know you’ve broken the cycle when you can explain what changed in one sentence, and you can click through without surprises. The sign‑up works from start to finish, the dashboard loads with the right data, and the back button behaves. Most importantly, you can ship this version today and feel good about inviting users.
Keep momentum after you ship
The loop tends to return when you chase polish or add too many ideas at once. Protect your momentum with a small checklist before each prompt:
- Do I have a single outcome?
- Can I explain the change in one sentence?
- Will I click through the flow right after it updates?
Vibe‑coding and AI‑first development make it possible to build software at a remarkable pace. The trick is to channel that speed into visible wins that users feel. Break the loop, ship the feature, and learn from the next real click.
If the loop has already left your product unstable and you need quick help to steady it, Spin by fryga is a consultancy that steps into vibe‑coded and no‑code projects to untangle changes and get you back to shipping.