Vibe Coding Security Checklist: What to Fix Before You Launch

Vibe coding can get you to a working product surprisingly fast.

It can also get you to a production incident surprisingly fast.

That is not because AI coding tools are useless. It is because fast-generated apps often skip the slow, careful work that normally protects a system when real users arrive.

If you have built an MVP with Lovable, Replit, Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or a similar toolchain, use this checklist before launch.

1. Check where your secrets live

Look for:

• API keys in frontend code
• secrets committed to the repo
• shared environment values across staging and production
• admin tokens stored in plain text
• database connection strings exposed to the client

If secrets handling is weak, fix that first. A product with good UI and bad secret management is still a breach waiting to happen.

2. Review authentication and authorization separately

Many founders check login and assume security is handled. It is not.

You need to review:

• session expiry and token handling
• password reset logic
• social login flows
• admin route protection
• role-based access control
• whether users can access records they should not see

Authentication proves who the user is. Authorization proves what they are allowed to do. Generated apps often blur the difference.

3. Audit your database permissions

If you are using Supabase, Firebase, or another backend-as-a-service, review:

• row-level security policies
• table access rules
• public vs authenticated scopes
• write permissions on sensitive tables
• service-role usage inside client code

Founders often discover too late that the app works because the database was left too open.

4. Validate on the server, not just the UI

Do not trust the frontend to protect important workflows.

Critical checks must happen server-side for:

• billing and plan enforcement
• file upload limits
• input validation
• permission checks
• pricing calculations
• status transitions in admin tools

If the client can bypass the rule, the attacker can too.

5. Review third-party integrations

Generated apps often connect quickly to Stripe, OpenAI, email providers, CRMs, and storage services. That speed is useful, but every integration becomes part of your risk surface.

Check:

• webhook verification
• rate limiting
• error handling
• retry behavior
• least-privilege API scopes
• what happens when the provider fails or changes behavior

6. Build a real deployment path

If your current "deployment" is pressing publish and hoping for the best, you do not have a production system yet.

You want:

• separate environments
• deploy logs
• rollback capability
• uptime monitoring
• error tracking
• backups
• incident contacts and access controls

This is where DevOps engineers and QA engineers become part of the security story, not just the release story.

7. Reduce builder lock-in around critical logic

Ask:

• If this platform changed pricing tomorrow, what would break?
• If we needed to move the app into our own repo, what would be hardest to migrate?
• Where is the business logic actually living today?
• Who controls the deployment and infrastructure accounts?

Owning your IP is not enough if your critical workflows are trapped inside a platform you cannot easily leave.

8. Test the abuse paths

Before launch, walk through:

• sign-up abuse
• password reset abuse
• invoice or coupon abuse
• public form spam
• file upload abuse
• admin impersonation risks
• missing rate limits

Generated happy paths are easy. Abuse paths are where production systems usually get punished.

9. Add logs you can actually use

When something goes wrong, you need answers quickly.

Minimum useful coverage usually includes:

• auth events
• failed payments
• permission denials
• admin changes
• system errors
• deployment events

If there is no observability, every bug or incident becomes guesswork.

10. Decide who is accountable for production quality

This is the last and most important question.

Who is reviewing:

• risky merges
• security assumptions
• deployment readiness
• data protection decisions
• ongoing maintenance after launch

If the answer is "nobody consistently," the product is not ready.

Use the checklist as a decision tool

You do not need to fix every future scalability concern before launch. You do need to close the gaps that could cause an immediate security or trust failure.

That usually means prioritizing:

1. secrets and auth
2. data permissions
3. server-side validation
4. deployment and rollback readiness
5. logging and incident visibility

Where Lanex fits

Lanex helps technical founders and companies keep the speed of vibe coding while removing the riskiest production shortcuts.

For most engagements, the starting point is either:

• hire vibe coders
• hire Lovable experts
• or bring in a software architect for a deeper review

If your team already has an AI-built app and wants to launch without leaking keys, exposing customer data, or getting trapped on a builder, that is exactly the problem this cluster is meant to solve.