Vibe coding is all over the place now. When most individuals hear the time period although, their thoughts immediately defaults to constructing full-stack CRUD apps, polished web sites you possibly can whip up inside minutes, or portfolio websites that someway all have the identical hero part (and gradient background). Now, as somebody who all the time has dozens of concepts floating round in my head, I have been doing a little model of “vibe coding” since OpenAI launched ChatGPT publicly.
That mentioned, the very very first thing I vibe-coded wasn’t an internet site, touchdown web page, or an app. As a substitute, it was a Chrome extension. I do not fairly keep in mind what it was imagined to do, however I keep in mind it working. So, I made a decision to return to the start and put three of the most important LLMs (Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini) by way of the identical take a look at: construct me a Chrome extension from scratch.
Chrome extensions are the simplest vibe coding stress take a look at
Load it, click on it, pray
Once you’re utilizing an LLM to vibe code a full-fledged app or web site, chances are high you will ultimately attain a stage the place you will want to determine internet hosting, deployment, surroundings variables, databases, and a dozen different infrastructure complications. To be honest, this is determined by the software you are utilizing, since instruments like Replit and Lovable allow you to straight deploy from their platform with a single click on. However even then, you are still testing the platform as a lot because the mannequin. Chrome extensions, however, do not require any of that. There isn’t any backend, internet hosting, or databases you really want to fret about. You simply load a folder into the Extensions part of your browser and it both works or it would not.
Chrome extensions include only a few information: a manifest.json that tells Chrome precisely what the extension does, after which HTML, JavaScript, and CSS information. These are three languages that LLMs are likely to deal with pretty effectively. Since Chrome extensions are designed to resolve one particular drawback, they make the proper bite-sized take a look at as there is a clear purpose. Every time I do these sorts of exams, I desire selecting an concept I’ve genuinely been that means to construct myself. Not solely does that give me the proper excuse to truly start constructing it, however it additionally makes for a particularly honest take a look at.
Truthful warning, the extension I bear in mind would possibly sound a bit… foolish and unconventional, so bear with me. I wished an extension that lets me search by way of my Instagram story viewers. I am unsure why this is not a local characteristic but, however if you happen to’ve ever had a whole bunch (and typically 1000’s) of individuals view your Instagram story and tried to search out one particular particular person in that record, you already know the ache. In principle, I knew a Chrome extension would do the trick, so that is what I made a decision to throw in any respect three fashions to see who may really pull it off. I used a particularly imprecise immediate — I simply instructed every mannequin what I wished and did not present a variety of particulars. Once more, the purpose right here is to see how effectively every mannequin can take a easy concept and work out the remainder by itself.
ChatGPT constructed a good extension
It labored, however I do not assume I would use it
Earlier than I am going any additional, I did not use Claude Code, Codex, or Antigravity (Google’s agentic IDE that works with Gemini) to construct this. As a substitute, I used the usual chat interface for every with their newest fashions and paid subscriptions throughout the board. I used GPT-5.5 Pondering for this one, and set the considering effort to Prolonged. I started with a primary immediate, and it put collectively a Manifest V3 extension in below two minutes. The extension known as IG Story Viewer Search, and it straight gave me a ZIP file which I may obtain and cargo straight into Chrome. Thus far, so good. Primarily based on the outline, the extension was supposed so as to add a floating search field when my Instagram story viewer record is open.
As quickly as I loaded the extension, I could not even click on it! GPT-5.5 then realized that the primary model it had produced had no toolbar popup, therefore why clicking the extension would do nothing. It patched it and gave me a brand new ZIP file. Upon testing it, I spotted that the extension labored, however it might solely work with a couple of viewers at a time. The LLM defined that this occurred as a result of Instagram “lazy-loads” the viewer record. After this, GPT-5.5 rebuilt the extension correctly for lengthy viewer lists. With this new model, ChatGPT claimed that it added a brand new “Index all viewers” button that auto-scrolls the story viewer record and builds an area searchable index. Upon testing it, the extension did not work as I wished but once more, and would solely work with the viewers exhibiting on display screen.
After 2 minutes and 11 seconds of considering, it gave me model 1.4, which added two new modes to work round Instagram’s annoying viewer-list conduct. The primary was Auto-index all, which was imagined to mechanically scroll by way of the viewer record and accumulate names as Instagram loaded them. However GPT-5.5 additionally admitted that Instagram would possibly block or interrupt programmatic scrolling, so this mode would possibly nonetheless be unreliable. The second, extra necessary mode was Begin stay seize. As a substitute of attempting to pressure Instagram to load everybody mechanically, this mode watches the viewer record in actual time and captures usernames as they seem whereas I manually scroll from prime to backside. I examined this out on a narrative that had round 400 views, and like GPT predicted, the Auto-index all button did not work. I attempted the stay seize button after which slowly scrolled by way of the complete viewer record myself. This labored higher, however it nonetheless wasn’t the seamless “search anybody immediately” expertise I initially had in thoughts.
It principally turned the extension right into a capture-as-you-scroll software. The extension may keep in mind viewers after they appeared on display screen, however it nonetheless could not magically entry the complete viewer record earlier than Instagram loaded it. Weirdly, it listed some customers as separate entries, and the overall view rely confirmed as 700+ customers. Some customers labored high-quality, whereas others had been damaged down into separate entries relying on their identify. That mentioned, the looking out did work this time, however it was clearly nonetheless a tough prototype reasonably than a refined software. It solved the unique drawback within the loosest potential sense: if I manually scrolled by way of the record first, I may then seek for individuals who had been captured. However the indexing was messy, duplicated some entries, misinterpret elements of show names as separate customers, and inflated the viewer rely method past the precise variety of story views.
So whereas GPT-5.5 ultimately obtained the core performance working, it took a number of rounds of debugging and nonetheless ended with a reasonably hacky workaround.
OS
Android, iOS, Net
Developer
OpenAI
Value mannequin
Free with non-compulsory subscription
Gemini’s first intuition was handy me a immediate
The extension by no means labored
I have been an enormous fan of Google’s AI efforts for some time now, however I preserve getting new causes to be disenchanted.I have been an enormous fan of Google’s AI efforts for some time now, however I preserve getting new causes to be disenchanted. After I used to be executed testing GPT-5.5’s extension, it was time to place Gemini to the take a look at, and what it produced was simply… embarrassing. Proper off the bat, it did not even write the extension. As a substitute, it gave me a full architectural breakdown, a DOM traversal lecture, and…look forward to it…a grasp immediate I used to be supposed to stick into an agentic IDE. Gemini, why would I’ve come to you within the first place if I wished to stick a immediate into one other software?
I then requested if it may really create the extension for me, and it set to work. In contrast to GPT or Claude, it did not hand me a ZIP file I may unzip and cargo straight into Chrome. As a substitute, it gave me every file individually (manifest.json, content material.js, and kinds.css) and instructed me to create a folder and save them myself. I did that, and the extension did not work in any respect. Gemini’s model took a totally completely different method from GPT’s.
Associated
You may get a free Gemini API key proper now with no billing required — this is what to do with it
I grabbed the free key out of curiosity and instantly had concepts.
As a substitute of a toolbar popup, it tried to inject a search bar proper into Instagram’s UI, straight contained in the viewer modal itself. The search bar by no means appeared. I instructed Gemini, and what adopted was six rounds of more and more assured fixes that each one failed in several methods. By the top of spherical 4, the search bar lastly appeared, however it could not discover a single viewer. I had some extra back-and-forth and ultimately simply gave up on the dialog.
OS
Android
Developer
Value mannequin
Subscription
Claude took three messages to get it proper
The one that really shipped
After the extensions GPT and Gemini had produced, my expectations had dropped considerably. Now, Claude’s first model did not work both. Claude then appeared into Instagram’s present DOM construction and rebuilt the extension utilizing Instagram’s inner API endpoints as an alternative (which it defined are far more dependable since I am already logged into my account). And voilà, it lastly labored.
Once I clicked the icon, there was a working search bar and a full viewer record pulled straight from Instagram’s API. The one subject was that it grouped all my story viewers collectively into one huge record reasonably than letting me search by way of viewers for every particular person story. I instructed Claude, and inside another message it gave me v3. This model added a visible story strip on the prime with thumbnails, timestamps, and examine counts. I may faucet any story to load simply that story’s viewers, then search inside it. And that was it. It labored, and it did not want any extra follow-up messages. Lastly!
Developer
Anthropic PBC
Value mannequin
Free, subscription accessible
Subsequent time, I am beginning with Claude
Claude constructed the extension the quickest, with the fewest messages required, and it is the one software that managed to construct one thing totally purposeful by the top. ChatGPT constructed one thing workable, and Gemini simply did not.
