Reading AI Code Well Enough to Modify It

You can vibe-code forever without writing code, but you will hit a ceiling if you cannot read what the AI produces. The good news: reading is ten times easier than writing, and you already do it every time you skim an email.

1. 1The file name — tells you the job (login/page.tsx = login page)
2. 2The function name — tells you the action (sendWelcome = sends an email)
3. 3The inputs in parentheses — what goes in
4. 4The return — what comes out
5. 5The words in the middle — rough story of what happens

// Example: an AI-generated function you might see

export async function sendWelcome(email: string, name: string) {
  const subject = `Welcome to PupLoop, ${name}!`;
  const body = `Hi ${name}, we're excited to have you.`;

  try {
    await resend.emails.send({
      from: "team@pupfoo.com",
      to: email,
      subject,
      html: body,
    });
  } catch (err) {
    console.error("welcome email failed", err);
  }
}

• async, await — just means wait for this
• import — getting something from another file
• export — making something usable elsewhere
• interface, type — defining a shape like a form template
• useEffect, useState — React's words for state and reactions

Each day, open one file in your app and explain it out loud. Then ask your AI to grade your explanation. Two weeks of this and you will read most small files fluently.

The big idea: reading beats writing. Ten minutes a day reading your own AI-generated code turns you from a prompter into a maker — even if you never write a line yourself.