Agentic Engineering

active

Origin: @karpathy (Andrej Karpathy), Feb 4, 2026

Karpathy's proposed successor to 'vibe coding.' AI agents that autonomously plan, write, test, and iterate — but under active human direction, review, and system oversight. Not passive prompt-and-accept, but structured agent orchestration.

Usage

Use to describe the current professional default for AI-assisted development. Contrasted with vibe coding (passive acceptance) — agentic engineering involves oversight and direction.

Mutations & variants

'From vibe coding to agentic engineering' as a standard arc description for 2025→2026

Cross-platform escapes

The New Stack article
Multiple DEV.to posts
Medium explainers
Developer newsletters

References

Karpathy tweet: https://x.com/karpathy/status/2019137879310836075

Shelf life: In adoption phase as of April 2026 — still spreading

Still emerging — 'in adoption phase' means using it signals you're current but it's not yet standard vocabulary. The frame: 'vibe coding → agentic engineering' is a clean arc for describing 2025→2026 evolution.

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