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Stop Vibe Coding: Start Spec-Driven Development, with John Capobianco

August 26, 2026 · 1 h 10 min

Show notes

John Capobianco is back, and this time the two of us are sitting in Munich building a subnetting game from scratch, live, with spec-driven development.


I've been vibe coding automations for the show for about six months. Some of it works. A lot of it falls over, and I've spent too many late nights chasing bugs in software I couldn't rely on.

John wanted to show me a more structured way to build with an LLM: a constitution first, then a spec, then a clarify step where the model comes back with questions, then a plan, then the code.


Along the way we get into what a spec really is (closer to a network change plan than you'd think), why the tests get written and run without you asking, the token bill that caught John by surprise, and the CCNA study pain that nearly made both of us quit over subnetting. Eric Chou stops in partway through with his own take on why he doesn't get stuck anymore.


It's a real build, so it's messy in the good way.


John Capobianco: https://artofnetworkengineering.com/guests/john-capobianco
Eric Chou: https://artofnetworkengineering.com/guests/eric-chou
Spec Kit: https://github.com/github/spec-kit
NAF / AutoCon: https://networkautomation.forum/

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