Vibe-GUIDE: A Graph-based User Interface in IDEs for Oversight in Vibe Coding
Abstract
In agentic coding, developers shift from implementing changes themselves to specifying intent, evaluating the agent's work, and making approval decisions. However, delegating implementation can introduce cognitive debt that erodes project comprehension over time, constraining developers'ability to provide oversight. In this work, we investigate the role of persistent shared representations in supporting project comprehension and oversight of coding agents. We present Vibe-GUIDE, an agentic coding interface built around a structural, live, manipulable, and adaptive graph representation organized by functional modules. We evaluated our interface in a randomized between-subjects study comparing how 16 developers completed three cumulative coding tasks using our interface or a Chat-only baseline. We found that Vibe-GUIDE can support project comprehension and sustained task performance while keeping developers cognitively involved in oversight. These findings show how persistent shared representations can complement natural-language interaction and help developers maintain the understanding needed to oversee agent-generated changes as projects evolve.
