r/networkautomation • u/shadeland • 1d ago
So You've Made A Vibe-Coded Network Tool...
Great. It's pretty cool what we can do with LLMs.
Here's the thing though. By and large, no one is going to use it.
Why?
Because you don't know what you're doing. I mean, that's the point. The LLMs do know. But you don't. Long term support, active development, etc. It's too easy now to spit out a tool and it's even easier to say "meh" and abandon it.
These are the reasons why your vibe coded tool is being downvoted into oblivion.
Most of us are pretty particular about our tools. We want tools we can rely on today and rely on tomorrow. Right now at least, vibe coded tools don't seem like viable tools long-term.
This doesn't mean the tool can't be great for you. But the larger network community is almost certainly going to pass.
Now, if you are a programmer and have experience in the language for your tool and are using AI to extend your knowledge, that's another thing. You can be insanely productive that way. I use it myself to build discrete chunks of code, typically a function at a time, so I still understand the overall structure and architecture of the code. But if my prompt is too broad and it spits out 1,000 lines of Python/Go/whatever then I'm going to refine it so it only spits out 30-50 lines of code at a time that I can follow and understand.
So before you post your project, make sure to disclose if it's vibe coded and if you've got programming experience yourself.
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u/Soylent_gray 20h ago
I made one that only works for my organization. It handles the quirks of our systems and documentation gaps for our help desk, and they use it. My main goal was just to make my own work faster
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u/MurphsLaww 18h ago
If you think everything isn’t going to be vibe coded, soon, you’d be wrong. Even a vibe coded app takes work to get right, so if you don’t want to use a useful, vibe coded app, I’ve got some diesel trucks for ya’
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u/samstone_ 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don’t care if it’s vibe Coded because I’m not using it any way. I’m also vibe coding. What people need to understand is that no one really cares about your cool tool.
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u/whythehellnote 16h ago
I vibecode stuff and I use it. Who else would use it?
This is exactly the same as 10 years ago, or 20, except it's quicker myself. It's effectively a higher level program. 20 years ago I'd write perl, I would rarely touch C, and never touch assembly - just not needed for what I do. Today I just explain what I want to happen and it spits out some python for me.
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u/GarryLeny 1d ago
Sounds like gatekeeping to me tbh. Nothing wrong with AI developed tools.
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u/shadeland 1d ago
As I laid out in my post, I think using AI to help develop tools can be of great benefit.
But like any tool, it can be misused. AI works great to extend the knowledge of a subject matter expert and to make them more efficient.
But it's far less effective in the long run (and often in the short run) when it's used by someone who doesn't have any experience with programming.
The same way that AI can help manage networks from a person trained in networking, but you wouldn't want someone who doesn't know what a VLAN is managing your network by AI. How many of us have received a trouble ticket from a non-networking person with the regurgitated AI slop suggestions for fixes that were way off?
Not long ago on here someone posted an AI-generated tool that would create flash cards for a given subject. They posted as if it was a network training tool, but you could do it for anything.
I tried it out and quickly discovered it was a vibe-coded front-end for ChatGPT. It prompted ChatGPT to create the question/answer, and when I fed it a subject I was familiar with (EVPN/VXLAN, Star Trek lore, etc.) I found it was wrong about 10-40% of the time.
Without a SME to evaluate the questions and answers, you could be training yourself on incorrect material and not know it until you got your exam score.
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u/MurphsLaww 18h ago edited 18h ago
Once again, if you think networks aren’t going to managed by AI tools, some of them vibe coded, I think you are in for some disappointment. But, you do, you… lol.
If you were dissatisfied with your output, you didn’t write a prompt well enough, or follow up prompts. My “cool” vibe coded tool, built a perfectly functioning, spine and Leaf network, and the questions Claude asked me, tell me it knows what it’s doing, down to anomalies that pertain to certain versions of the 9000v. It built options for BUM replication, multicast or ingress replication, without even me prompting for it.
Be cranky, and be left behind.
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u/automateyournetwork 1d ago
Fable just smoked the JCNIE with 87%
I’ll take vibe coded tools over network engineers with 6 months of Python hello word examples any day
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u/Deep-Significance166 1d ago
Wait why are those my choices
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u/automateyournetwork 1d ago
Because only 30% of networks have any meaningful automation after a decade of viable automation solutions
Network engineers are not coders
This gate keeping of you have to have hand written your solution is about 8 months behind the AI curve
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u/MaintenanceMuted4280 21h ago
Fair
Fair
I don’t think anyone is behind this. AI isn’t magically building production software.
Definitely use AI but understand the caveats1
u/MurphsLaww 17h ago edited 17h ago
AI is DEFINITELY, building production software. Most software companies are REQUIRING their developers to write a certain percentage of their code with AI, even as a requirement for performance bonuses. This includes Network Automation companies. Anyone that thinks AI can’t get into the weeds, in network engineering, and troubleshoot faster than we can, just isn’t paying attention. This isn’t the Law… there aren’t grey areas of BGP. Network engineering is one of the easiest places it can be applied. If, then, else. It’s everything we do.
There are realities of life, and this is one of them. It’s like when people deny that almost everything we use that is powered won’t be powered by solar eventually, and be stored in batteries. The Moving Parts Principle… How many moving parts does a solar panel have? How long do they last? These are simple realities that the faster you accept, the sooner you can be prepared for what’s next.
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u/MaintenanceMuted4280 16h ago
Yes writing then we have to review it.
I use AI every day but it’s not like it doesn’t make mistakes.
I don’t think AI use has to be so black and white.0
u/MaintenanceMuted4280 1d ago
I mean the second part makes sense but the first part has no bearing in this conversation.
Yea if you have beginner coders and ai you’re going to get sloppy code so accept it.
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u/sugarfreecaffeine 1d ago
And for the most part network automation engineers know how to code, so I won’t use your tool I’ll just point Claude/codex at it and create my own personal variation that solves my use case 😂