Vibe Coding EightySix OS: Building SEO Software with Claude and ChatGPT

The buzzword everyone is using and few can explain

Vibe coding is everywhere right now. It gets thrown around as either the future of software or the end of proper engineering, depending on who is talking.

At EightySix Digital we are less interested in the hype and more interested in what it can actually do. So rather than write a think piece, we thought it would be more useful to show you a real project we are building this way: EightySix OS, a new operating system for SEO agencies.

It is not the first thing we have built with AI. We did something similar when we built Top5Trades UK with Claude, a hand-coded directory with no WordPress bloat. EightySix OS is the more ambitious version of that idea.

This post explains what vibe coding really is, what we are building, who it is for, and exactly how we are using Claude and ChatGPT to build it, including where the AI is genuinely brilliant and where it still needs a human firmly in charge.

What vibe coding actually means

The term was popularised in early 2025, and the idea is simple.

Instead of writing every line of code by hand, you describe what you want in plain English, the AI writes the code, and you steer it, run it, and refine it through conversation. You are working with the intent of the software rather than the syntax.

At its loosest, vibe coding means accepting the AI’s output on trust and going with the flow. That is fine for a throwaway experiment. It is a terrible idea for anything real.

The version we practise is more disciplined. The AI does the heavy lifting on the code, but a human plans the architecture, reviews what comes back, catches the mistakes, and makes the calls that actually matter. The vibes get you moving quickly; the judgement keeps you out of trouble.

What we are building: EightySix OS

Anyone who has run SEO for clients knows the real problem is not the SEO itself. It is everything around it.

One piece of work ends up spread across a dozen systems. Search Console in one tab, GA4 in another, Ahrefs somewhere else, a crawler, a spreadsheet, a reporting tool, and a Google Doc holding it all together. The work gets done, but proving it took forever.

EightySix OS is our answer to that. It is an operating system for SEO agencies, built around three steps:

• Connect your stack. It plugs into the tools you already use rather than trying to replace them.
• Run the work. Technical crawling surfaces the issues, and a planning timeline turns those findings into actual tasks.
• Prove the results. As you work, it logs the proof, so reports build themselves from real, connected data instead of a frantic scramble at month end.

Because clients don’t really buy SEO. They buy confidence. EightySix OS is designed to help agencies build and show that confidence systematically, with the evidence to back it up.

And while it starts with SEO, the foundation, connect your stack, run the work and prove it, is not unique to search. That is why we say SEO agencies and beyond. It is where we plan to take the platform next.

How we are building it: architect and builder

Here is the part people are curious about: how do you actually vibe code something as serious as a SaaS platform?

We use two AI models, each playing to its strengths.

ChatGPT is the architect. Before a line of code gets written, we use it to think out loud: how the data should be structured, how the different pieces fit together, which approach is sensible and which is a trap waiting to happen. It is a fast, tireless sounding board for the high-level decisions that shape everything downstream.

Claude is the builder. Once the plan is clear, Claude does the hands-on construction, writing and refining the actual code across the project, making larger multi-file changes, and turning the architecture into a working application.

Then a human sits over the top of both. We direct the work, review every meaningful change, test it, and take responsibility for it. The AI proposes; we dispose.

That division of labour is the whole trick. One model for thinking, one model for building, and a person who knows what good looks like making sure the two add up to something you would actually trust with your clients’ data.

Where vibe coding shines, and where it bites

We will always be straight with you, so here is the honest scorecard.

Where it is genuinely brilliant:

• Speed. Ideas that used to take weeks can take days. You can try an approach, throw it away, and try another without the usual cost.
• Momentum. You spend more time on what the software should do and less time fighting boilerplate.
• Learning. When you get stuck, you have an expert on tap to explain the options.

Where it bites if you are not careful:

• Blind trust. AI writes confident code that is sometimes confidently wrong. If nobody reads it, bugs and security holes slip straight through.
• Architecture. Models are great at the next step and worse at the whole map. Skip the planning and you get a tangle that is painful to maintain.
• Security and data. For a platform handling client accounts and analytics, this is non-negotiable, and it is squarely a human’s job.

The tools have not removed the need for skill. They have changed where the skill is spent, away from typing and towards direction, review and judgement.

What this means if you are watching from the outside

If you run a business, the takeaway is not that software is now free or effortless. It is that a small, focused team can build genuinely useful tools far faster than before, provided they know what they are doing.

That is exactly how we work at EightySix Digital. It is the same principle behind our web design and SEO work: use AI hard, build lean, and keep a human accountable for the result. EightySix OS is the clearest example of that yet, and it is being built in the open, one disciplined step at a time.

EightySix OS is currently in early access. If you run an SEO agency and the “one piece of work, a dozen systems” problem sounds familiar, you can take a look and request access at eightysixos.com.

We will keep sharing what we learn as we build it, the good and the messy, because that is the honest version of vibe coding worth reading.