Tips, patterns & FAQ
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Tips, patterns & FAQ
App-wide advice that doesn't belong to any single tab — workflows, shortcuts, and the questions people ask most. · Reference
If you've read a few section guides and want the bigger picture, this is the page for you.
Required vs. optional — the cheat sheet
You can build a great project by doing only the required spine and skipping everything else. Here's the whole app sorted by how much you need it. (Full context: The Progression Map.)
| Do this | Because |
|---|---|
| Required: Features → User stories → Acceptance criteria → Pages → Schema → Prepare for Dev | This is what makes a project buildable. Skipping any of these leaves a gap your coding agent will have to guess at. |
| Recommended: Project summary, Personas, Tests, Hand off to your IDE | Most projects are noticeably better with these. |
| Optional: Business case, Financial analysis, Templates, Sprint planning, Codebase sync, Jira export, App Builder, the Graph/Blueprint/Financial visual views | Reach for these when your workflow calls for them. None are needed to produce a build-ready spec. |
Common workflows
Pick the pattern that matches how you're starting.
Validate first, then spec (a new idea you're unsure about). Business case → Financial analysis → then the spine. Kill or reshape the idea before you invest in specifying it.
Move fast (you know the idea). Start from a template or a tight prompt → Features → let Guided mode walk you down the spine → Prepare for Dev → hand off.
Existing codebase (you're adding to real software). Connect your IDE agent → sync your codebase so generation is grounded in your actual code → spec new features → watch for drift.
Team hand-off (you'll build in Jira). Spec the spine → export to Jira → your team works the board, with status flowing back.
⚡ Power-user hints
- Model choice matters. The model picker in the agent input applies to chip-triggered generations and pre-flight interviews. Heavier models cost more but reason better on ambiguous specs; economy models are fine for well-described ones.
- The agent vs. the buttons. Use the conversational agent for surgical edits ("rename X", "add a story to Y"); use section-page Generate buttons for bulk creation. Both flow through the same pipelines, billing, and version control.
- Everything is revertable. Agent edits are wrapped in changesets — if a generation goes sideways, revert it in one click.
- Entity codes are your friend. Reference things by code (F-002, US-014) in chat so the agent never guesses which entity you mean — see Entity codes.
↔ The traditional way, summarised
| Traditional | VibeMap |
|---|---|
| PM writes a PRD in a doc | The spec is a connected model, not prose |
| Designer maps screens separately | Pages derive from features and stories |
| Architect draws an ERD by hand | Schema is inferred from pages + features |
| Lead files tickets manually | One-click export to Jira |
| "Are we ready?" is a meeting | Readiness is computed |
FAQ
Do I have to use the AI agent? No. Every step has section-page buttons and direct editing. The agent is a faster path, not a required one.
What if I don't like a generation? Regenerate it, edit it directly, ask the agent to fix specifics, or revert to before it ran.
Which features need a paid plan? Business case, financial analysis, guided pre-flight interviews, the blueprint narration, sprint planning, teams, and the App Builder are on paid tiers. See Account & billing for exactly what each plan unlocks.
How do I know I'm done? Run the readiness checklist — or just watch the coverage check go green on Prepare for Dev.
Can VibeMap build the app for me? Yes — the App Builder compiles your spec into a deployable Next.js + Supabase app. Or hand the spec to your own IDE agent.
I'm working in an existing repo — will it respect my code? Sync your codebase and generation is grounded in your real structure, with drift detection when spec and code diverge.
Need more help?
- Email: support@vibemap.ai
- In-app: ask the conversational agent, or use the feedback form (bottom-right).