Introduction

New Vibecoding users often face a dilemma: small changes after a project runs smoothly can trigger a chain reaction of failures, ultimately leading to project abandonment. This article reveals the core reasons—poor tool selection and lack of an iterative process—and provides IDE solutions along with a four-step method for major changes. From archiving strategies to PRD collaboration, and Plan mode development to changelog management, this methodology allows you to achieve robust iterations without writing code.

The story goes like this.

You create a small project, and on the night the first version runs smoothly, you feel great. You send out requirements in the chat, the page gradually comes together, and features are implemented one by one. You think, this is really going to work.

Then a few days later, you come back wanting to add a feature.

After changing things for a while, the prompts keep changing, and AI either says it’s fine while secretly breaking something else or directly rewrites a piece of logic you didn’t want to touch.

Things get more chaotic.

In the end, you want to revert to the previous version, only to find… you can’t go back.

The project just ends up abandoned.

This is not an isolated case. It’s a wall that most new Vibecoding users will hit.

1. The Wrong Tool is the Starting Point of All Problems

Many people, when first starting a Vibe project, use platforms like Lovable or Google Labs.

These tools allow for rapid prototyping. With just a few clicks, you can create a beautiful page and implement simple logic in minutes.

But there’s a fundamental problem.

The code is locked within the platform.

You can’t see the complete file structure and cannot make fine-tuned controls. As features multiply and code complexity increases, it starts to get messy.

To be honest, these tools were not designed for continuous development. Their purpose is: you have an idea, quickly validate it, and that’s it.

But if you want to truly run this project, continuously add features, fix bugs, and iterate for half a year or a year, they won’t help you.

At this point, you need to switch to an IDE.

Tools like Cursor, Windsurf, or VS Code with AI plugins have the core advantage that you can see all files, collaborate deeply with AI, and manage versions.

The code is in your hands, not locked in a platform.

This point determines how far you can go.

2. Not All Changes Require a Complete Process

Let’s clarify this.

Small changes, like changing a button color, swapping an icon, or adjusting a piece of text—these can be directly screenshot and sent to AI, indicating what’s wrong, letting it make the change, and checking the effect. If unsatisfied, you can modify it again.

It’s quick. No need for any ceremonial process.

Major changes are what we’re really discussing today.

Adding a complete page, restructuring a core feature, or introducing a new module—these things can’t be clearly stated in one sentence, and AI may not fully understand. Directly making major changes is likely to cause issues.

Most new feature iterations you can think of are major changes.

3. Major Changes: Four Steps, None Can Be Skipped

Step 1: Archive First

Before facing a big boss in a game, you save your progress.

Development is no different.

Before making a major version iteration, tell AI:

I am about to conduct a major version iteration, please help me package the entire project for archiving.

It’s just a single sentence.

But if you skip this step, once you make a bad change, you’ll have no way back.

Step 2: Let AI Help You Write the PRD

Many people dread the thought of “writing documents.”

Here’s some good news: you don’t need to write this document yourself.

You only need to do one thing: clarify what you want to change. Then find a model with strong logical capabilities, like Claude Opus, and provide it with your current product screenshots, page demos, and a list of features you want to add, asking it to help you write the iteration PRD and also create a demo design for the page.

Your task is to review it, confirm the direction is correct, and tell it to make changes if something is wrong.

Once you feel the document and demo are satisfactory, you can proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Sync the Document with Programming AI

Return to Cursor, create a folder named PRDs.

Inside PRDs, create a subfolder called Iteration 2.0.

In this folder, place two files:

1. Iteration 2.0.md: paste the PRD you just wrote.
2. 2.0-demo.html: paste the demo page.

Then, in the chat window, add this folder and tell AI:

Carefully read the documents and demo in the Iteration 2.0 folder and tell me your understanding of this iteration.

Once it clearly explains the changes, you can continue.

The significance of this step is to ensure the programming AI truly understands what needs to be done, rather than relying on a few spontaneous sentences from you.

With clear context, the probability of AI making errors decreases significantly.

Step 4: Develop in Plan Mode

Find the agent icon at the bottom of the chat window and open Plan mode.

Then say:

Create a development plan and complete this iteration.

AI will list a to-do list. Confirm there are no issues, click build, and it will start implementing the features one by one.

Once it’s done, check the actual results to confirm all features are implemented.

4. Final Step: Let AI Remember What Was Changed

Many people feel done at this point.

But there’s something particularly important that most people forget.

AI’s memory has context limitations. This is especially evident with programming AI, which compresses context frequently. When you return for a new iteration after some time, it may not remember the current state of the project.

How to solve this?

After completing the iteration, send AI this prompt:

This iteration is fully completed. Please help me organize a concise changelog, including which files were modified, what new features were added, and any important notes. The format should be Markdown, appended to the end of the iteration document.

This changelog serves as a memory snapshot of this iteration.

Next time you start a new iteration, just provide this PRDs folder to AI, and it will quickly understand the current state of the project without needing you to explain everything from scratch.

Following this entire process:

Archive → PRD → Sync Document → Plan Mode Development → Record Changelog

You haven’t written a single line of code throughout. What you did was just screenshot, paste, create folders, and check results.

But this process must not skip any steps.

Skipping any step is the starting point for your next project failure.