The term “vibe coding” has become associated with use of AI coding assistants to create code that expresses a developer’s intent, even if the results are ropey and require plenty of extra work to put into production. Google’s now proudly adapted the term to describe the workings of its Stitch design tool.

The Chocolate Factory gave the world the term “vibe design” in a Wednesday post from Google Labs product manager Rustin Banks, who opened by observing “Over the last year, AI has fundamentally changed how we build, turning simple descriptions into functional software.”

Google calls its tool for the user interface design side of creating software “Stitch,” and Banks explains the company has given it a complete redesign.

“It now features a new AI-native, infinite canvas that gives your ideas room to grow from early ideations to working prototypes,” he wrote. There’s also a “brand new design agent that can reason across the entire project’s evolution.”

The post describes the tool as allowing “vibe designing” that allows developers to “explore many ideas quickly … Instead of starting with a wireframe, you can start by explaining the business objective you’re hoping to achieve, what you want your users to feel, or even examples of what’s currently inspiring you.”

It’s 2026, so you don’t even need to type this stuff.

“You can speak directly to your canvas,” Banks explained. “The agent can give you real-time design critiques, design a new landing page by interviewing you, and make real-time updates – like ‘give me three different menu options,’ or ‘show me this screen in different color palettes’ – as you speak.”

The Register would love to be a fly on the wall to observe office vibes during that sort of conversation.

Vibe design isn’t just about emoting to Google.

Banks points out that Google has created an SDK and MCP server for Stitch, so users can link it to coding assistants Antigravity, Gemini CLI, Claude Code, or Cursor, to blend vibe coding and vibe design.

The post ends with Banks suggesting Stitch can help “a professional designer looking to explore dozens of variations or a founder manifesting your first software idea,” and means they can get stuff done “in minutes rather than days.”

Here’s hoping those numbers are tied to reality, rather than a vibe. ®