Clean Architecture in Vibe-Coded Projects: How to Keep Frameworks at the Edges

Most developers using AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot or Cursor think they’re saving time. They’re right-until their app breaks six months later because React code is buried in their user authentication logic, or their database queries are tangled inside business rules. When you vibe code without structure, you’re not building software-you’re building a time bomb. The fix isn’t more AI prompts. It’s clean architecture.

Why Vibe Coding Destroys Architecture (And How to Stop It)

Vibe coding feels like magic. You type, “Create a login flow with email and password,” and suddenly you’ve got working code. But that code? It’s full of framework-specific imports. React hooks in your domain layer. Prisma models called directly from your use cases. Firebase auth mixed into your business logic. This isn’t a bug-it’s the default behavior of AI assistants. They don’t know architecture. They know patterns they’ve seen in training data. And most training data comes from quick-start tutorials where everything’s thrown together.

Robert C. Martin warned us about this in 2017. In Clean Architecture, he said: “Frameworks are tools, not masters.” Your core business rules-what your app actually does-should never depend on React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, or any external library. Those are details. Details belong at the edges. But AI doesn’t understand edges. It just gives you code that works… today.

A December 2024 study by Metronome found that 63% of vibe-coded projects that failed within six months did so because frameworks leaked into the core. That’s not bad luck. That’s avoidable.

The Three-Layer Rule: Core, Application, Framework

Clean architecture in vibe coding isn’t complicated. It’s just three layers, and you enforce them before you write a single line of code.

1. Core domain layer - This is your business logic. No imports from frameworks. No HTTP calls. No database queries. Just plain JavaScript or TypeScript objects that represent your business rules. Example: calculateDiscount(user, order) returns a number. That’s it.
2. Application layer - This is where your use cases live. It’s the glue between the core and the outside world. It calls the core, but doesn’t touch frameworks directly. Instead, it uses interfaces. Example: authService.login(email, password) - but the actual login implementation (Firebase, Supabase, etc.) is hidden behind this interface.
3. Framework layer - This is where React, Express, Prisma, or Firebase live. This layer implements the interfaces from the application layer. It’s the outermost shell. It knows nothing about your business rules. It just translates UI events into use cases and database results into domain objects.

This structure doesn’t slow you down. It makes you faster in the long run. When you need to switch from Firebase Auth to Auth0? You change one file. Not 47. When you upgrade from React 18 to 19? Your core logic stays untouched. That’s the power of boundaries.

Architectural Guardrails: Your AI’s New Boss

The biggest mistake developers make is thinking they can rely on discipline alone. You can’t. Not when your AI assistant is generating 20 lines of code per minute.

You need tools that enforce the rules automatically. Enter Sheriff-an open-source tool built for this exact problem. Sheriff scans every code change and checks: “Did someone import React into the domain layer?” “Is a database call hiding inside a use case?”

Teams using Sheriff reduced framework leakage by 89% in vFunction’s December 2024 case studies. And it doesn’t slow you down. It adds 2-3% overhead to your workflow. But it saves you 200+ hours when you need to refactor.

Here’s how to set it up:

1. Define your three-layer boundaries in a config file before you start coding.
2. Share that config with your AI assistant at the start of each session. Prompt: “Follow these architectural rules. Never import framework code into the domain layer.”
3. Run Sheriff as a pre-commit hook. If it catches a violation, the commit fails. No exceptions.

One developer on Reddit, u/ArchDev42, reduced React code in his core from 73% to 4% using Sheriff. His migration from React to Svelte went from 320 hours to 47.

How to Vibe Code Without Breaking Architecture

You don’t stop vibe coding. You just change how you do it.

Start with a Product Requirements Document (PRD) that separates what you need from how you’ll do it. For example:

• Business requirement: “Users can reset their password via email.”
• Implementation details: “Use SendGrid for email, Firebase for storage, React for UI.”

Now, before you ask your AI to generate anything:

1. Define the interface first. Example: interface PasswordResetService { sendResetEmail(email: string): Promise<boolean> }
2. Ask your AI: “Implement this interface using the framework layer only. Do not touch the domain layer.”
3. Test the interface. Does it work? Then implement the real service (e.g., SendGrid) in the framework layer.

This is called “vertical slice” development. Instead of building all the UI, then all the backend, then all the database-you build one tiny feature across all layers. You start with the interface, then fill in the details. This prevents AI from generating deep framework dependencies.

A study by Wasp showed that teams using this method completed features 40% faster after the first three were built. Why? Because they weren’t rewriting everything every time.

When Not to Use Clean Architecture in Vibe Coding

Let’s be real. Clean architecture isn’t always worth it.

If you’re building a one-week prototype to test an idea? Skip it. Build fast. Break things. Throw it away.

If you’re a solo developer with no plans to maintain the app beyond next quarter? Maybe skip it.

But if you’re building something that needs to last, scale, or be handed off? If you’re on a team? If you might switch frameworks later? Then clean architecture isn’t optional. It’s survival.

The data doesn’t lie. Projects with clean boundaries had 62% fewer critical bugs related to framework dependencies. They adapted to framework changes 3.2x faster. And after 12 months, they were 73% more maintainable, according to Google Cloud’s Dr. Sarah Chen.

Tools That Make This Real

You don’t have to build this from scratch. Here’s what works right now:

• Sheriff - Open-source, MIT licensed. Enforces layer boundaries. Works with any stack. Integrates with Git hooks.
• PACT Framework - A structured workflow for vibe coding. Includes templates for defining boundaries in React, Node, and Python projects.
• AIBD Guidelines - A set of 5 core rules every vibe-coded project should follow. Published by AI Architecture Consortium in August 2024.
• GitHub Copilot Workspaces - Now supports architectural guardrails. You can define rules once, and Copilot respects them across all files.

The PACT Framework’s GitHub repo has been starred over 1,800 times. Why? Because it includes ready-to-use prompt templates like:

“Generate a domain model for user authentication. Do not use any external libraries. Use plain TypeScript. I will implement the framework layer separately.”

Use these. Copy them. Adapt them. They’re the cheat codes for vibe coding without chaos.

The Hard Truth: AI Can’t Replace Architectural Knowledge

Here’s the uncomfortable part: AI won’t save you if you don’t know architecture.

A November 2024 survey by Creator Economy found that 87% of developers who tried vibe coding without architectural training got stuck. Their AI-generated code was messy, tangled, and impossible to fix.

You can’t vibe your way into clean architecture. You have to learn it first. Spend 15-20 hours studying the three-layer model. Practice defining interfaces. Write a small project with Sheriff running from day one.

It takes 3-4 weeks to get good at it. But once you do, you’ll be the person everyone asks to review their code.

Robert Martin put it best in a November 2024 interview: “AI coding assistants magnify both good and bad architectural decisions. Without clean boundaries, you’ll scale architectural debt 10x faster.”

What Comes Next

The industry is moving fast. By Q4 2025, Gartner predicts 85% of enterprise AI-assisted development will include automated architectural enforcement. The EU’s AI Act already requires transparency in high-risk systems-clean architecture is the easiest way to comply.

AI assistants are getting smarter. In Q2 2025, several vendors plan to release tools that auto-detect and refactor architectural violations. But until then? You’re still the architect.

The best vibe coders aren’t the ones who type the fastest. They’re the ones who set the rules first-and make sure even their AI follows them.