Things break. That is not a sign you are doing it wrong. It is the most normal part of building with AI coding tools. The difference between someone who gives up and someone who ships is knowing what to do when the output is wrong, the app stops working, or you are stuck in a loop where the same fix keeps failing.
This session gives you a practical toolkit for diagnosing problems, communicating issues to the AI effectively, and recovering without starting over. You will work through real troubleshooting scenarios and practice the techniques on your own project.
What You Will Learn
• Reading error messages. They look intimidating but they almost always tell you exactly what went wrong. You will learn to extract the useful information without needing to understand the code.
• Describing problems clearly. “It does not work” gets you nowhere. You will learn how to describe what you expected, what happened instead, and what changed.
• When to refine vs. when to restart. Sometimes you can fix it in place. Sometimes the conversation has gone stale and a fresh start solves the problem instantly. You will learn to recognize which situation you are in.
• Managing context window issues. When the AI starts “forgetting” things or producing lower quality output, it is usually a context problem. You will learn how to keep conversations focused and when to start a new one.
• Checkpoint thinking. How to save your progress before making changes so you always have a known good state to fall back to.
What You Will Walk Away With
• A troubleshooting playbook you can use every time something breaks.
• Practice diagnosing and fixing real issues in your own project.
• Confidence that getting stuck is normal and recoverable.
Prerequisites
This session assumes you have some experience building with AI coding tools. You will get the most out of it if:
• You have built something with an AI coding tool, even something small.
• You have experienced something breaking or not working as expected (most people have by this point).
What to Bring
• A laptop with a browser (all tools we use are web-based)
• A project you are working on or want to start
• Your current project, especially any parts that are giving you trouble
Part of the From Prototype to Product Series
This is Session 1 of 10 in the Vibe Coding: From Prototype to Product workshop series. Each session stands alone, but the full series is designed as a progression from first build to finished product.
Full series ticket holders get access to all 10 sessions, weekly lab sessions for live troubleshooting, recordings of every session, and Founder Guide community access. Full series: $480 (10 sessions for the price of 8). Visit the series page for details.
Already have a series ticket? Enter your promo code at checkout to register for free.
About the Facilitator
Todd Bashor is the founder of Founder Guide and has 25 years of experience building and scaling software products at ServiceNow, FICO, and Intuit. He co-founded NewRocket in 2017 and led it through hypergrowth to acquisition in 2022. He now works with early-stage founders on product validation, traction, and go-to-market strategy.
Todd has been coding with AI for over two years and has mentored multiple non-technical founders through building their first MVPs with vibe coding tools.
