spike
A short investigation answers one technical unknown.
Use this when You cannot choose an approach until an integration or performance assumption is tested.
without the term
“I'm not sure if this payment SDK even works with our setup. Can you quickly hack something together to find out, just to answer that question, not to build the real thing?”
with the term · How do you ask a model for spike?
Run a bounded spike for this integration question. Report the observed result, limitations, and which prototype code is suitable to keep.
What is spike?
The result of a spike is evidence for a decision. Its code is often thrown away, and its limits are written down so nobody mistakes it for production work.
Why does spike matter when vibe coding?
A prototype can accidentally acquire production responsibilities.
How do you do spike?
Name the question, time limit, and evidence needed. Record what the experiment does not prove.
What goes wrong with spike?
Treating a successful toy example as proof of production readiness.