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# The spectrum of agentic coding: From vibe coding to high-quality software engineering


- **Event:** World Congress 2026 North America

## Description

After spending over a billion tokens on AI-assisted coding over the past two and a half years - from creating one of the first agentic coding tools (Kaguya) to daily production use - I've realized that vibe coding and traditional software engineering are not opposites. They exist on a spectrum.

This talk introduces a four-level framework for agentic coding:

1. Vibe coding - let AI go wild, forget the code exists
2. Agentic coding with discipline - version control, file-level understanding, basic testing
3. Agentic software engineering - CI, pre-commit hooks, function-level understanding
4. High-quality software engineering - line-by-line understanding, interactive code reviews, indistinguishable from handwritten code

You'll learn when to use each level, how to level up your agentic coding practices, and why the real problem with "slop" isn't AI - it's not putting enough thought and effort into the process. The key insight: more tokens spent doesn't have to mean more garbage. It can mean higher quality code, better research, and deeper understanding.

## Speaker

### [YK Sugi](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@yk-sugi)

Developer Experience Manager at Eventual


## Related talks at this congress

- [The Agentic Engineering Loop](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1704-the-agentic) — Kevin Lin
- [When Humans Stop Writing Code: Rethinking Languages, Compilers, and Responsibility](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1709-when-humans-stop) — Simon Auer
- [Beyond Vibe Coding: Using CLI Tools as Your AI Counterpart in Pair Programming](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1721-beyond-vibe-coding) — Ron Veen
- [Vibe Coding Accessibility](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1438-vibe-coding) — Karl Groves

## Watch remotely

Can’t make it to San José? Watch this session live with Pro. You also get:

- All full videos, bookmarks, and playlists
- World Congress livestreams

[See pricing](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/pricing)

## Links

- [Get tickets](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/world-congress-north-america/tickets)