If you haven't heard of vibe-coding, you're probably not as chronically online as most of us at Cline. Vibe-coding is where non-technical users create their own apps or tools using AI code development powered by large language models. Some of the most popular platforms are Lovable, Replit, and most recently Anti-Gravity. There are other options more aligned for software engineers, like IDEs, as opposed to non-technical users. We'll explain the difference in a moment.
Vibe-coding has evolved fast. Just a few months ago, people criticized it for only generating prototypes due to backend database deployment limitations. Now it's becoming easier to ship production-ready apps in hours as database companies like Supabase have developed new integrations to support this entirely new method of software development. But even Supabase is being challenged, as more vibe-coding platforms are building their own in-house database systems, making it even easier and faster for users to move from prototype to production independently using nothing more than natural language prompts.
Yesterday Meta announced they acquired a company in this space called Manus for over $2 billion. Manus, a Chinese-based company headquartered in Singapore, launched early this year in March with a really slick demo where their Manus agent performed all sorts of automations autonomously. What Manus built is called an ADE, and ADEs are being pushed as the next generation of software development.
What's an ADE?
An ADE is an agentic development environment, similar to IDEs but more specific on the creation of agents as the primary mechanism of automation versus development of code. Companies like Manus leverage a general-purpose AI agent responsible for planning and executing complex, multi-step digital tasks, such as creating full-stack web applications, conducting research, or generating presentations, all with minimal human input. Its core strength is operating autonomously to deliver complete results, aligning perfectly with the definition and function of an ADE.
In technical terms, Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) primarily focus on helping developers write and edit code, offering features like auto-completion and debugging tools. Examples include Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf.
Agentic Development Environments (ADEs) are centered around autonomous AI agents that can manage entire project lifecycles using natural language prompts. Examples include Manus, AgenticSeek, CrewAI, and ChatGPT Agent.
Now where things get a bit more complicated is when we introduce vibe-coding platforms into the mix of IDE versus ADE. Vibe-coding is more like an IDE but built for non-technical users. IDEs are manual because they provide developers with more control and access to their codebase. To accomplish this, they generally operate within local terminals. Whereas with vibe-coding, users are purely operating within a context window, not the terminal, in order to allow non-technical users to use natural language prompts for rapid development and prototyping. Examples of vibe-coding platforms include Lovable, Replit, and Anything.
The Quick Summary:
IDEs are for AI code development but for engineers, what we call vibe-engineering. ADEs are for agentic development for both engineers and non-technical users. Vibe-coding is for app development but for non-technical users.
Why This Matters for Healthcare
IDEs, ADEs, and vibe-coding are all coming to healthcare, and it's what we're building at Cline: The Doctor's Technical Co-Founder. Cline is building a platform that is a mix of an ADE and vibe-coding. Like Manus, the default or general agent every user gets access to when they work with us is the CTO agent, the doctor's technical co-founder. This agent's primary skill is AI code development and AI code management. When doctors want to vibe-code, they work directly with Cline to build what they want or need, and once their build is ready for production, Cline steps in to manage and maintain it, or what we call maintenance as a service.
What Cline is not is an IDE. Doctors do not use AI code development in terminals. They do not track tokens. They do not need to worry about backend databases, GitHub repositories, or any of the other deployment management requirements engineers need in order to get an app or agent pushed to production. Cline is the infrastructure for agentic skill management where the backend being used is the EHR.
Is Cline an EHR?
We keep getting asked this question. Our answer: Yes, but not in the same way that EHRs currently exist today in a pre-AI SaaS era. We still provide the same level of compliance and security as you would expect from an EHR, but the purpose is entirely new and formatted for the true end users: doctors. Cline is a true AI-era headless EHR where doctors get all the functionalities of an EHR but get to design and build their own interfaces, applications, and agents to operate it. There's no standard way to use Cline. The standard is created by the end user, doctors.
Doctors can use Cline to build whatever they want or need in order to deliver the best quality care possible to their patients. They do not have to use all of the EHR features and get the opportunity to turn on or off the features that do not make sense for their specific use case or practice model.
Why This Is Different from Consumer Vibe-Coding
Consumer vibe-coding platforms like Lovable and Replit are designed for general app development. They're powerful tools for building side projects, startups, or consumer applications. But they lack three critical things doctors need: HIPAA compliance by default, EHR integration, and healthcare-specific workflows. When you build on a consumer platform, you're starting from scratch. You need to figure out data security, patient privacy, medical record integration, and compliance frameworks. Then you need to somehow connect what you built to your existing EHR, which often isn't possible without extensive custom development or EHR permissions.
Cline solves this by being EHR-native from the ground up. When you build with Cline, you're building inside a secure, compliant healthcare environment. Your apps and agents have direct access to patient data, clinical workflows, and medical records because they're part of the EHR infrastructure, not external tools trying to integrate with it. This means what you build on Monday can be used in production on Tuesday, not six months later after extensive security reviews and integration projects.
Supporting All Frontline Healthcare Workers
What's special about Cline is that it isn't just built for doctors in private practice. We want to support all frontline healthcare workers with vibe-coding and ADE agents regardless of their employment status. This means we're coming up with new standards for data interoperability in the same way that LLM labs such as Anthropic created MCP and Skills to support data integration. The old way of managing patient data across healthcare systems is outdated now that doctors have access to ADEs.
The Future We're Building
The adoption of AI code development by non-technical users is accelerating rapidly. Recent data shows that over 40% of new software projects now involve some form of AI-assisted development, with non-technical users representing the fastest-growing segment. In healthcare specifically, clinicians are increasingly frustrated with rigid software that doesn't adapt to their workflows. A recent survey found that 81% of physicians are dissatisfied with their employer's pace of AI adoption, and 71% have little to no influence on which AI tools their organizations use. Doctors want control. They want to build solutions that work for their patients and their practice models.
We're excited about what we're building and the future we're creating for doctors, clinicians, and patients. We may be the first in this space in healthcare, but we certainly won't be the last. We welcome everyone to come join us and build the future we have always imagined.
Interested in vibing?
Cline gives you the power to create custom healthcare solutions without needing to become a software engineer. Just describe what you want, and your technical co-founder handles the rest. EHR-native, HIPAA-compliant, and designed specifically for doctors.
Because the future of medicine isn't built by tech companies. It's built by doctors.