I Vibe Coded Too Hard and Broke Production (Here's How I Fixed It)

TLDR;

🔥 REALITY CHECK: I vibe coded myself into a corner and had 3 paying users yelling at me within 24 hours (this is embarrassing but real)

💰 BUSINESS SAVER: Proper Git rollback saved my startup when AI coding went sideways - you NEED this workflow

🤯 HOLY SH*T MOMENT: Used ChatGPT + Claude Code to plan my own rollback - AI helping fix AI problems (meta much?)

⚡ EASY BUTTON: Tag your commits BEFORE changes - it's literally a time machine back to working code

🚨 HARD TRUTH: You can't "100% vibe code" complex apps without getting burned eventually

This happened to me LIVE on stream. No script, no editing, just pure panic and the Git workflow that saved my ass.

The Moment I Realized I F'd Up

Look, I'm not gonna sugarcoat this.

I got way too comfortable with Claude Code. It was helping me ship features 10x faster than normal. I felt unstoppable. I was in full founder mode, streaming every day, building in public... life was good.

Then my phone started blowing up.

Three paying users - and guys, it took me FOREVER to get three paying users - were hitting me up saying the app was completely broken.

My heart sank. This is the nightmare scenario every developer fears, right? But here's the thing - this happens to EVERYONE. Even experienced devs like me. And you shouldn't be embarrassed when it happens to you either.

"This is your sign to learn Git rollbacks before you really need them."

Why I Got Too Cocky (And Why You Will Too)

Here's what nobody talks about in all these AI coding tutorials: AI makes you feel like a 10x developer until reality smacks you in the face.

I mean, Claude Code was helping me implement features I never thought I could build. Complex state management, real-time syncing, the whole nine yards. Everything looked perfect in my testing. The AI gave me detailed plans. I thought I had it all figured out.

But you know what? I'm just one human being. I don't have automated tests for every browser, every edge case, every weird thing users do. I was just "going with the vibes" if you know what I mean.

Bottom line: We're in the AI Lambo era, folks. It's like your favorite car rental company suddenly let you rent Lamborghinis for $5. Everyone's lining up because they want to drive fast. But if you really want to take it on the track without crashing... you need to know what you're doing.

The Emergency Git Rollback That Saved My Startup

When your production is on fire and paying customers are bouncing, you need a game plan. Here's exactly what I did (and streamed the whole messy process live):

Step 1: Don't Panic - Back Everything Up First

Before I touched ANYTHING:

Backed up my database (I use Convex - whatever you use, do this NOW)

Created a tag for my current broken state: git tag backup-pre-rollback

Pushed that tag: git push origin backup-pre-rollback

Why? Because even broken code represents work, right? I might need to reference it later. And your production data is probably gold right now - treat it as such.

Step 2: Asked AI to Fix the Problems AI Created (I Know, I Know...)

This is where it gets meta, and honestly kind of hilarious.

I literally went to Claude Code and said: "My users are reporting issues. I found the regression and I need to roll back to exactly this commit hash on my main branch. But I want to test this on a branch first."

The AI gave me a complete rollback plan! Then I took that plan to ChatGPT o3 and said "can you help me visualize this?" And you know what? ChatGPT actually generated diagrams for me. I didn't even know it could do that!

This is why I love the AI era - infinite patience, won't treat you like you're dumb, just explains everything step by step.

Step 3: The Actual Rollback (YOLO Time)

Here's what actually went down:

Created a test branch: git checkout -b rollback-test

Hard reset to the good commit: git reset --hard [commit-hash]

Cleaned everything: Removed node_modules, .next, all the cache stuff

Reinstalled dependencies: bun install (because I'm a Bun stan)

Tested everything before touching production

And guys, watching Git Tower visualize this rollback in real-time was actually pretty satisfying. All those commits just... disappeared. Back to July 16th we went.

Step 4: The Database Schema Nightmare

This is where things got spicy.

My rolled-back code was expecting one thing, but my database had evolved. It's like having an Excel spreadsheet that expects Name, Email, Address... but now you've got a "Favorite Food" column that says "pizza" for everyone.

The old code freaks out: "What's this pizza column?! I don't know what to do with this!"

Instead of wiping user data (NEVER do this), I had to make my rollback code tolerant of the extra database fields. Basically: "Hey code, it's okay that this extra stuff is there. Just ignore it for now."

Tools That Actually Matter When Everything's On Fire

Git Tower: I've been using this for over a decade. Yeah, it costs money, but when you're managing production deployments, the visual interface is worth every penny. Git Kraken is cheaper if you're just starting out.

Claude Code + ChatGPT combo: This is my secret sauce. Claude Code for the actual implementation, ChatGPT for explanations and those sweet visualizations.

Version numbers everywhere: Pro tip - put version numbers somewhere visible in your app. When users send bug screenshots, you'll instantly know which version they're on. This has saved me countless times.

What I Learned About AI Coding (The Hard Way)

After this whole disaster, I had some realizations that nobody's really talking about:

The Context Problem is Real

When you throw too many tasks at AI models, the accuracy drops significantly. The AI will find ONE instance of a bug, fix it, and think it's done. Meanwhile, four other instances of the same bug are just chilling untouched.

AI Wants to "Just Ship It"

These models are trained to complete tasks quickly. If they can't immediately see the solution in your existing code, they'll just... make new code. And we're all too busy to double-check everything, right?

You Can't 100% Vibe Code Complex Apps

I hate admitting this, but it's true. Even with all my experience, I need smaller scopes, tighter feedback loops, and yeah... actually reading the code the AI generates.

"I was gonna make a post on X saying I give up on vibe coding... but that's not exactly right either."

What You Should Do Right Now (Seriously)

Look, I'm sharing this embarrassing story because I don't want you to learn this lesson with paying customers breathing down your neck:

Set up proper Git workflows with automatic tagging

Get your database backups automated TODAY

Add version numbers to your UI (trust me on this one)

Practice rollbacks on a side project first

Scope down your AI sessions - I know it's tempting to go big, but smaller changes = better outcomes

The Real Talk About AI Development

Here's what the AI coding gurus won't tell you: There's no "set it and forget it" with AI development.

The developers who actually succeed long-term are combining:

AI speed for getting features built

Human judgment for the big picture stuff

Proper tooling for when (not if) things break

Systematic testing because production doesn't care about your confidence

Community Love and What's Next

Before I wrap this up - huge shoutouts to everyone who's been hanging with me on this journey. We just hit 14,000 YouTube subscribers (holy smokes!) and our Discord community is absolutely poppin’.

If you want to join the Discord and see more of these real-time disasters and wins, just join my YouTube membership. It's $6.99 and honestly, the community alone is worth it.

We've even got people hitting the billion token club with Claude Code. GitMax hit 8 million tokens in two days! The future is wild, folks.

The Bottom Line

AI coding WILL break your production eventually. I don't care how experienced you are or how careful you think you're being.

The question isn't if - it's when.

The developers who survive and thrive are the ones who prepare for that moment. Git workflows, database backups, rollback procedures... this stuff isn't optional anymore.

Don't be like me, learning this lesson live on stream with paying customers upset. Be smarter. Be prepared.

Your production will thank you.

Want to see more real-world AI coding adventures (and disasters)? I stream daily on YouTube where I build in public and share both the wins and the absolute failures. Because real life isn't scripted, and coding with AI definitely isn't either.

P.S. - If this helped you, drop a comment and let me know. And if you've had your own AI coding disasters, share them! We're all learning this stuff together, and honestly, the community stories are often better than mine.

Claude Code Prompts from Livestream

Initial Prompt

My users are reporting issues with the transcriptions and I've found the regression. I need to rollback to exactly this commit hash e3712afe1235123512351235 on my main branch but I want to test this in a branch so it'll deploy to my dev environment so I can make sure I can rollback the changes in my Convex database in the dev environment before merging the changes to main.

I need you to help me figure out the plan and steps so I can do this myself.

Improved Plan to Rollback to Commit e3712afe with Safety Measures

Create a safety backup tag on current branch

git tag backup-pre-rollback

git push origin backup-pre-rollback

This creates a safety net to easily restore the current state if needed.

Create a new test branch from main

git checkout main

git pull origin main

git checkout -b test/rollback-e3712afe

Reset to the target commit

git reset --hard e3712afedcee3e5495e119b090085d0d53c355a1

Force push to create the test branch remotely

git push origin test/rollback-e3712afe --force

Check for Convex schema differences

Before deploying, check if there are any Convex schema or migration differences:

Compare convex directory between current and target commit

git diff backup-pre-rollback e3712afe -- convex/

Deploy to Convex dev environment

npx convex dev Watch for any schema migration warnings or errors.

Test thoroughly in dev environment

Test all transcription features

Verify subscription management works

Check admin dashboard functionality

Test database queries and mutations

If tests pass, prepare for main branch update

git checkout main

git merge test/rollback-e3712afe --no-ff -m "Rollback to commit e3712afe to fix transcription regression"

git push origin main

Recovery options if things go wrong:

To restore the pre-rollback state: git reset --hard backup-pre-rollback

To check reflog for any lost commits: git reflog

To see what commits you're removing: git log --oneline e3712afe..backup-pre-rollback

Important notes:

The backup tag backup-pre-rollback will preserve your current work

Monitor Convex logs during deployment for any schema incompatibility issues

Consider creating a database backup in Convex before deploying the rollback

The rollback will remove recent UI updates and DRY refactor changes