Is ArtCraft Really Vibe-Coded? I Tested It From the Inside

Is ArtCraft really vibe-coded? The ArtCraft apps (PhotoCraft, FilmCraft, PdfCraft, WordCraft and the rest of the free Adobe and Office clones) get called "vibe coded" in videos with millions of views. So I tested ArtCraft from the inside. I found a real bug in the ArtCraft Launcher, fixed it, and sent them my own code. Then I watched everything that checks a change before it reaches your computer: their robot tests, their AI reviewer, and the human who presses merge. Their AI caught a mistake I missed. Vibe coding means you "forget that the code even exists" (the person who invented the word). Security folks put it simpler: if a human reviews the AI's code, it's not vibe coding. So I gave ArtCraft 3 questions: does an AI write it, does anyone test it, and does anyone check it before it reaches you? Apps covered (all 16): ArtCraft · PhotoCraft (like Photoshop) · FilmCraft (like Premiere) · PdfCraft (like Acrobat) · VectorCraft · EffectCraft · FigCraft · LightCraft · DesignCraft · WordCraft (like Word) · GridCraft · DeckCraft · CadCraft · SoundCraft · AniCraft · CraftLauncher 🔍 What I found (public GitHub data, as of 28 Oct 2026) ✅ About 1,600 people changed the ArtCraft apps in 4 weeks: almost 40,000 changes in 30 days ✅ Half the changes say an AI helped write them (mostly Claude). Their rulebooks are written for the AI ✅ Robot tests run on almost every change. PdfCraft's own test opens 983 real PDF files: 0 crashes ✅ Every change goes in because a person presses merge. Nothing goes in on its own ⚠️ Only about 1 in 5 changes has a review, and about 6 in 100 went in with a red test ⚠️ One night in WordCraft: 11 security fixes, a broken build, fixed in about 2 hours, and no release in between ⚠️ The ArtCraft Launcher setting "Only when I ask" still checks for updates at every start, even in the new v0.9.0 My fix (pull request, still waiting for a human as of publish day): https://github.com/storytold/craft-la... The bug report: https://github.com/storytold/craft-la... ✅ Do this tonight 1. Download ArtCraft only from the official source: getartcraft.com or github.com/storytold 2. Want the Launcher quiet? Use a network blocker (I used LuLu on Mac) and only allow it when you press "Check now" 3. "Merged" isn't "installed": a fix reaches you only with the next release. Check your version ▶ Craft Watch, the live map of every ArtCraft change:    • ArtCraft Changes Every 2 Minutes. So I Bui...   ▶ PdfCraft says your PDFs never leave your Mac. I tried to catch it:    • PdfCraft Says Your PDFs Never Leave Your M...   ▶ I reverse engineered PhotoCraft (what's inside):    • I Reverse Engineered PhotoCraft (Free Phot...   ▶ Is PhotoCraft safe? My 6-check test:    • ArtCraft Review: Is PhotoCraft Safe? I Tes...   📌 In this video • Is ArtCraft vibe-coded? The real definition of vibe coding, and 3 questions to test it • How many people build the ArtCraft apps, and how much is written by AI (Claude) • My own pull request to the ArtCraft Launcher: bug, red test, fix, green, and their AI reviewer • The WordCraft night: when the tests said no • Who presses merge, and what that means for the app you download ⏱ Chapters (update from the final cut) 0:00 Millions of views say "vibe-coded" 0:22 What vibe coding actually means 0:40 How many people build ArtCraft? 0:55 ① Does an AI write it? 1:15 I sent ArtCraft my own code 2:30 ② Does anyone test it? 3:05 When the robots said no (the WordCraft night) 4:10 ③ Does anyone check it? 4:45 Their AI caught my mistake 5:40 So… is ArtCraft vibe-coded? 🔎 How I measured Public GitHub data of the storytold/* repos (commits, pull requests, checks at merge), from git history and Craft Watch. "AI helped" = the change carries an AI co-author tag, so the real share is at least that. "Review" = any GitHub review on the pull request (some may be bots). I can't see their private rules or their Discord. Numbers are rough. 📚 Sources (as of 28 Oct 2026) Karpathy's original post: https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192... OpenSSF glossary, vibe coding: https://glossary.openssf.org/vibe-cod... Simon Willison: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/19... Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/slang... PdfCraft: https://github.com/storytold/pdfcraft WordCraft: https://github.com/storytold/wordcraft Craft Watch (free live map): https://overprivileged.github.io/craf... ⚠️ Not affiliated with ArtCraft / storytold. I had AI help too: my fix was tested, reviewed by their AI, and it still waits for a human. Spot a mistake? Tell me in the comments. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔐 About Overprivileged The security side of AI, explained properly: what AI tools can actually access, what can go wrong, and what to do about it. 🔔 Subscribe:    / @overprivileged   💼 Business enquiries: overprivileged.lab@gmail.com #ArtCraft #PhotoCraft #FilmCraft #VibeCoding