How to Document Your Vibecoding Journey as a Timelapse

What is Vibecoding?

Vibecoding is the practice of building software with AI assistants — tools like Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, or GitHub Copilot doing the heavy lifting while you guide the direction. You describe what you want, the AI writes the code, and you iterate until it works.

The result? Entire apps built in hours instead of weeks. And the process is fascinating to watch.

Why Record Your Vibecoding Sessions?

Vibecoding timelapses are blowing up on Twitter/X. People love watching someone go from zero to a working app in 60 seconds. It's satisfying, educational, and great for building your developer brand.

Reasons to record:

• Show the world what you built and how fast
• Review your own prompting patterns and improve
• Build a portfolio of shipped projects
• Get followers who want to learn your workflow
• Document the journey for future reference

How to Record with ChefLapse

1. Select your IDE window

Pick your Cursor, VS Code, or browser window from the dropdown. ChefLapse captures it in the background — you can switch between tabs, terminals, and browsers freely.

2. Set interval to 1-2 seconds

Vibecoding moves fast. Code appears in chunks as the AI generates it. 1-2 second intervals capture every meaningful change.

3. Enable cursor tracking

This is key for vibecoding timelapses. Viewers can see where you're clicking, selecting text, and typing prompts. It makes the video feel dynamic.

4. Set auto-stop for your session length

Planning a 3-hour build session? Set the auto-stop timer so you don't forget to stop recording.

5. Hit record and vibe

ChefLapse uses ~35MB RAM. You won't notice it running alongside your IDE, browser, and AI tools.

Best Practices for Vibecoding Timelapses

• Use fullscreen IDE — cleaner video, no distracting taskbar
• Dark theme — looks better in timelapses and on social media
• Close notifications — no embarrassing popups in your recording
• Record the browser too — if you're building a web app, switch to window capture of your browser to show the result

Where to Share

• Twitter/X — 30-60 second clips get the most engagement
• YouTube — longer 2-5 minute versions with music
• LinkedIn — great for showing technical skills to recruiters
• Reddit — r/programming, r/webdev, r/SideProject love these

The Auto-Pause Advantage

When you take a break, lock your PC, or step away — ChefLapse auto-pauses. No dead frames of an idle screen. When you come back, it resumes automatically. Your timelapse only shows active work.