Module 2: Experience the Failure Mode

Goal: Understand why SOLO exists by experiencing what happens without it.

What you need to know first

Agentic coding means you type a request in plain English, and an AI writes the code for you. It can also run your code, read your files, edit existing code, and fix bugs — all from Copilot Chat inside VS Code, or from Codex in your terminal.

This is powerful. It's also dangerous. The AI will happily write code that works but is fragile, poorly organized, and impossible to change later. This module lets you feel that problem firsthand.

Reading

• Read the blog post: Shift from Vibes to Production Code with the SOLO Protocol
• Focus on the section "The problem with just letting it code"
• Don't worry about understanding every term yet — you'll learn them across the program

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Lab 2: Vibe Coding

Estimated AI conversations: 1-2

1. Open your study-tracker project in VS Code.
2. Open Copilot Chat (⌘+I / Ctrl+I), make sure Agent Mode is enabled, and type this prompt (and nothing else):

   "Build me a command-line study tracker in Python. I want to log study sessions and see my total hours."

3. Accept everything the AI produces. Don't guide it. Don't correct it. Let it cook.
4. Run the program. It probably works for the basic case.
5. Now try to extend it — type these one at a time in Copilot Chat and see what happens:
   • "Add the ability to track which class each session is for"
   • "Show me a weekly summary broken down by class"
   • "What happens if I type 'abc' for the number of hours?"
   • "Add the ability to delete a study session"
6. After each change, look at the code. Notice:
   • Is it getting messier with each addition?
   • Did adding one feature break something that worked before?
   • Is the AI building on its earlier choices, or rewriting things?
   • Could you explain what the code does if someone asked?
7. Commit this code to git — you'll compare it to what you build later:

   git add .
   git commit -m "Vibe-coded version (no SOLO)"
   git push
   

The punchline: That last question — "what do you wish you'd told the AI before it started coding?" — is the entire foundation of SOLO. The rest of this program teaches you how to answer it.