What to vibe code as a sysadmin - full apps

Posted by Prestigious-Burrito@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 33 comments

Getting a push from the execs to keep creating fully vibe coded apps. I've been using ai for some scripts and stuff but for full apps I dont have much inspiration.

Anyone else in a similar position, and if so, what have you been building?

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bbqwatermelon@reddit

That premise is ridiculous. Sounds like a homework assignment, is there some kind of requirement to demonstrate to stakeholders?

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lateralUnilateral@reddit

Vibecode an app that vibecodes more apps. Sit back and meet the artificial metric.

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The first thing I built was a tool to track when stocks broke above/below their 200-day moving average.. basically because my brokerage didn't alert on it and I kept missing it. Niche use case for me, but it taught me everything I needed to know about scoping tightly: one signal, one alert, one action. That became sma200.trade and now other people use it too.

The second was a Microsoft 365 admin delegation UI for the onboarding work I was doing because GDAP / CIPP / native admin centers are all wrong-shaped for what I actually needed. That became UserDesk..

Both started as "this thing annoys me and exists nowhere else." If your execs are pushing vibe-coded apps, the failure mode is building something nobody wants. The protection against that is scoping to your own annoyance first - if it's solving something you personally hit, you'll know if it works.

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Ssakaa@reddit

Make a management level bullshit generator, producing unclear requirements on unreasonable timeframes, never with clear, meaningful, goals.

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choking_artichoke@reddit

Why do you write apps as a sysadmin?

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mortsdeer@reddit

"push from execs" i.e. "Hey, you're a computer guy, we need to get on this vibe code bandwagon!"

Same energy as "Draw seven perpendicular red lines, some with green ink, some transparent, but all red"

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Ssakaa@reddit

That skit plays on repeat in my head during any requirements gathering I get involved in.

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sdrawkcabineter@reddit

Have the execs do it.

They're obviously the ones with the capability, and expertise, so they really should be doing the vibe coding.

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mixduptransistor@reddit

They're telling you to vibe code apps just generally? They don't have specific requests or needs?

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SevaraB@reddit

Sysadmin != software developer. Be sure they understand the ask is scope creep.

What they’re really asking is “what can you get AI to do for you, so that we can justify the massive amount we already spent on AI?”

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justaguyonthebus@reddit

Create a ticket groomer. Something that checks the quality of all incoming tickets and verifies the user has provided enough relevant information.

Every time one slips through without enough info, update the prompt to catch the missing thing in that scenario.

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mysticalfruit@reddit

I was given the same mandate and I took it this direction..

Ask yourself this question: "What part of my job is donkey work and could be effectively automated?"

Then think about how tools like Claude can help you with this.

Here's a good example.

When someone leaves my company they get put into the "Exit Database". Because of the diversity of systems, just marking their account "disabled" in AD isn't good enough.. the user needs to be moved into a specific OU, etc, in the kerberos domain (we run a wild FreeIPA setup) they need to get locked out, their SSH keys need to get moved.. We have a couple stand alone systems that are managed through git repos, etc..

I'd written some automation myself, but using claude I took it to a new level. I've managed to slam together a decent gui that let's me pick a user from the database and then I can press a single button that will do all the deeds.. or I can be selective.

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Candid_Candle_905@reddit

Oh and a tech debt tracker. Make sure it can't keep up 😄)

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Candid_Candle_905@reddit

If you're the sysadmin and the execs are asking this from you...

... vibe-code a resume builder

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lateralUnilateral@reddit

Vibe code an app that randomly generates more vibe coded apps. Sit back and let it meet the arbitrary metric for you.

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lateralUnilateral@reddit

Vibe code an app that randomly generates more vibe coded apps. Sit back and let it meet the arbitrary metric for you.

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lateralUnilateral@reddit

Vibe code an app that randomly generates more vibe coded apps. Sit back and let it meet the arbitrary metric for you.

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Candid_Candle_905@reddit

A change tracker that automatically turns 'quick prod fix' into a 14 day outage discussion lmao

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rootcurios@reddit

Why would a sysadmin even be creating apps for a company? Vibe coding or not, that's not the job.

However, you could always create a small app with a single button that pulls up the job description and salary of an app developer, then a Y/N pop up asking "Do you wish to increase {your.name} salary to meet industry pay standards?" Then shrug and be like, idk that's what was vibe coded 🤷🏻‍♂️

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ExceptionEX@reddit

Nothing....?

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TimTimmaeh@reddit

Perhaps not „apps“, but you might can speed up your whole IaC pipeline, including Testing / etc.?

Be happy that you’re at this stage and not „we need autonomous agents by year’s end“.

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cwk9@reddit

Build GUI/Web/Dashboards interfaces for your scripts. Gives you something so show without dividing into full on Software development. Next look for very specialized apps in you business. I've seen companies pay big bucks for software that a junior dev could crank out over a weekend.

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Humpaaa@reddit

Anyone else in a similar position, and if so, what have you been building?

Asked for a multi-million budget, since "somebody" needs to support that vibe-coded trash.

Budget got denied, escalated to the CISO, management got a call, topic never came up again.

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SlowkayCoomer@reddit

Sounds like you should vibe-code a technical excuse generator to deflect from these kinds of requests.