Everyone at this point has heard of vibe coding, software development through quick, casual input and then built by AI. By speeding up the rate of iteration, mistakes become cheap and expected.
I’ve noticed that there’s untapped potential that many folks are currently missing. When you stop relying on a single model, the opportunities really expand. Which brings us to Ping-Pong Vibe Coding – think of your workflow as a conversation between minds. In this case, the two minds are AI models:
- Claude Code the current state of the art for generating software with AI.
- Open Code which is similar but allows the use of any model on OpenRouter which allows you to leverage the best frontier models including Gemini 2.5 Pro, or o3 directly via OpenAI to act as your expert reviewer.
Instead of running in a straight line from prompt to code, you bounce ideas between models.
- Claude implements
- OpenCode critiques
- Claude adapts.
The results improve as models have different blind spots, so while they won’t catch their own mistakes, working together it becomes easy. It’s like having two different senior engineers reviewing each other’s work.
The Pattern
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Write a plan in Claude Code.
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Ask Claude to implement the plan.
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Use Open Code to review the resulting diff:
“You are an expert code reviewer. Review the current branch against main. Provide a code review point by point. Look for dead-code or other common mistakes.”
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Incorporate the review feedback into Claude Code, either manually or by summarizing the review as a prompt.
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Repeat the loop, surfacing issues, tightening code, and getting multiple perspectives.
You don’t wait until everything is built to start reviewing – do it in steps along the way.
Bonus Tips for Using Claude Code Effectively
- Guardrails Make It Work Always make sure your project has a linter and a test suite. Hooks are especially valuable for this.
- Ask Claude to configure linters, tests, and GitHub actions It does workflows just as well as it writes code!
- GitHub PRs are still valuable Split tasks into logical PRs, commit frequently, and rely on GitHub Actions to keep Claude honest.
- Automate project tasks with commands Claude Code supports custom slash commands so you can automate tasks like creating releases with a single
/command. - Run in parallel There are a number of tools like Conductor and Vibekanban which automate running parallel instances.
Ping-pong vibe coding is more than a clever trick—it’s a mindset. You don’t need to rely on a single answer. You alternate between distinct perspectives, generating friction that sharpens ideas and leads to better results. Of course, some projects are simple and might not require this, so use your judgement.
Try it out. Write a test, ship a draft, bounce the diff. What new software will you create with this ability?