Karpathy's 'Agentic Engineering' Term Takes Hold: PEV Loop (Plan→Execute→Verify) Replaces 'Prompt and Hope' as Core Vibe Coding Workflow

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In early 2026, Karpathy coined 'agentic engineering' — the discipline of designing systems where AI agents plan, write, test, and ship code under structured human oversight. The core workflow is the PEV Loop (Plan → Execute → Verify), replacing the 'prompt and hope' approach. 'Specification engineering' is emerging as the new discipline: writing structured, unambiguous project briefs that define scope, constraints, architecture preferences, and acceptance criteria before any AI tool is invoked. Enterprise validation: TELUS saved 500K+ hours, Zapier 89% AI adoption, Stripe Minions 1,300+ PRs/week.