# The Vibe Coding Safety Net You Are Missing

3 min read · For developers who vibe-code with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or Gemini

TL;DR: Vibe coding is 10x faster until your agent breaks something. Add a feedback-driven safety net that learns from your corrections — without slowing you down.

## Vibe coding is a superpower with a blindspot

You describe what you want. The agent builds it. You ship in hours what used to take days. But every vibe-coder has hit this wall: the agent does something catastrophically wrong, and you realize there was nothing stopping it.

#### Without guardrails

- Agent rewrites a file you did not mention
- Agent runs `DROP TABLE` in prod
- Agent force-pushes over teammate's commits
- Agent installs a dependency you rejected yesterday
- Same mistake repeats every session

#### With ThumbGate

- Check blocks file writes outside scope
- Check blocks destructive SQL before execution
- Check blocks force-push to protected branches
- Check remembers your rejection across sessions
- Mistakes are blocked permanently after feedback

## Why CLAUDE.md and .cursorrules are not enough

Prompt rules live inside the agent's context. They compete with your conversation, the codebase, and the agent's own reasoning. When the context window fills up, prompt rules are the first thing to get compressed or ignored.

Pre-action checks live outside the agent. They intercept tool calls at the hook layer (PreToolUse in MCP) before execution. The agent cannot override them because the check runs in a separate process.

Mental model: Prompt rules are speed limit signs. Pre-action checks are physical barriers. Signs can be ignored. Barriers cannot.

## How to add guardrails in two minutes

1. Install: `npx thumbgate init` — auto-detects your agent and configures hooks
2. Code normally: vibe-code as you always do, no workflow changes
3. Correct when needed: when the agent does something wrong, give it a thumbs-down with context
4. Checks build themselves: repeated failures auto-promote into prevention rules that block the action next time

## It gets smarter over time

ThumbGate uses Thompson Sampling to adapt enforcement. Patterns that cause real damage get strict checks. Low-risk patterns stay relaxed. The system tunes itself based on your feedback — no manual rule-writing required.

Every correction you make improves the model. Every thumbs-up reinforces good behavior. Over weeks, your agent develops an immune system tailored to your codebase and workflow.

## What vibe-coders actually check

Based on real usage patterns from ThumbGate users:

- Git operations: force-push, branch deletion, rebase on shared branches
- File mutations: writes to config files, package.json changes, lock file modifications
- Database operations: destructive SQL, schema migrations without backup
- Dependency management: installing packages the developer already rejected
- Deployment: pushing to production without test suite passing

## Start with one check

Install, vibe-code, and give your first thumbs-down. The safety net builds itself.

$ npx thumbgate init

### Related guides

How to Stop AI Agents From Force-Pushing to Main → MCP Pre-Action Checks Explained → Full Setup Guide →
Try it now: `npx thumbgate init` GitHub →