Drew Dela Cruz

Claude. Codex. Cursor. All of These Vibe Coding Tools are Beautiful.

It's like having a tutor 24/7, and you can ask them as many questions (yes, even dumb questions) as you want. They help bring ideas to life and abstract the process of coding.

But...

There's just one thing — you gotta keep your ducks in line.

What do I mean by that?

I can brain dump all I want into Claude, but the context window is only so big. It'll likely forget some stuff.

I try to "remember" everything. Features I want to add. Bugs I need to fix. But alas, I'm just a hoo-man. I need something to help me out. Keep me organized.

For Context, Here's What I'm Building

Tim - Time is Money: your personal finance buddy that shames you for using your credit card.
SwitchFlip Co: a marketplace for goofy and regular skaters to swap shoes.
AskDrew.dev: my personal site.
much more (thanks Santa Claude)

Keeping track of ideas, features, and bugs across multiple projects? Yeah, that's where my brain starts to fail me.

Enter Git

Git is the equivalent of Google Docs. A time machine for your code.

But here's what it actually means: git tracks every change you make to your code. Every save point. Every version. If you mess something up, you can roll back to when things worked. Like saving progress in a video game.

GitHub is where your code lives online. Like Google Drive for your projects — but with special powers. You can track issues, collaborate with others, and never lose your work.

Quick note: GitHub didn't create git. I wish someone told me that earlier. Git is the tool. GitHub is just one place to host your git repos (there's also GitLab, Bitbucket, etc.).

Setting Up a Repo

You can do this a couple ways...

Option 1: If you prefer clicking around, use the website

Go to github.com and sign in/create an account
Click the **+** in the top right corner → **New repository**
Name your repo (something like `my-cool-project`)
Add a description
Check **Add a README file**
Click **Create repository**

You've got a repo. Now clone it to your machine. Open up terminal and run:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/my-cool-project.git
cd my-cool-project

Boom. You're done.

Option 2: If you work in the command line, use the CLI

First, install the GitHub CLI. On Mac:

brew install gh

Then authenticate (you only do this once):

gh auth login

It'll walk you through connecting your GitHub account. Follow the prompts.

Now you can create repos straight from your terminal:

mkdir my-cool-project
cd my-cool-project
gh repo create my-cool-project --public --source=. --remote=origin

Ready to go.

I use the CLI. Claude is really good at using it, and I like to stay in the terminal.

My Workflow For a New Idea

When I start something new, I just brain dump into Claude.

The high level of what I want the thing to do, as if I'm the user. Once we're on the same page, I ask Claude to make a repo. It handles the gh CLI commands. I just approve.

Seriously, Issues Changed Everything

This is huge for me.

Issues are just a way to keep a running to-do list of what I need to do in a project. They can be as granular or as vague as you want.

I try to make issues for every little thing. Make it a habit.

This offloads all that "remembering" that I was failing to do. The issues list remembers so I don't have to.

My workflow:

Yap to Claude about what I want to build
Tell it to break that down into individual tasks
Tell Claude to use the CLI to make issues for each one

Simple.

If you want to go deeper, work out the process of each issue and add acceptance criteria. But honestly, just getting things out of your head and into issues is the win.

The Point

Vibe coding is powerful. But it's only as good as your ability to stay organized.

Git isn't just version control. It's your external brain. Your running to-do list. Your safety net when things go sideways.

You don't need to master every command. You just need to:

Make a repo
Use issues to track what you're building

Let Claude handle the rest.