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Rescue vs rewrite: which path costs less?
Most vibe-coded MVPs don’t need a full rewrite on day one. They need an honest triage: what to stabilize, what to replace, and what to stop shipping on.
Choose rescue when
- Core flows work most of the time
- The product idea is validated; engineering is the bottleneck
- You can still run and explain the main paths
- You need a stable deploy before the next demo or users
Choose rewrite when
- Nobody can explain critical paths—including the “author”
- Secrets were leaked or auth is fundamentally broken
- Every small change breaks unrelated features
- Stack choices fight hosting, team skills, or cost reality
Our take
Start with a Rescue Sprint triage. You often rewrite the hot path and rescue the rest—cheaper than a blank-slate rebuild, safer than pretending the demo is production.