Mind Theory launches MTCode, a CLI for Vibe Coding

Most kids can describe an app they want. A snake game with custom rules. A trading card website for the cards they collect. A shopping list with colours for sweets and drinks.  The wall they hit is the gap between the idea and the working code. MTCode is the tool we built at Mind Theory to close that gap.

We just released it this month, starting with the students in our current vibe coding camps.

What MTCode actually is

MTCode is a CLI (command line interface) coding terminal that runs on Windows PC or laptop. The student types what they want to build in plain English, something like “make me a Kanban board where I can drag yellow sticky notes between three columns”. MTCode reads the request, writes the code, runs it, and fixes its own mistakes when something breaks. The student stays in charge the whole time, deciding what to build, what to change, what to ship.

Why we built our own

There are other coding CLIs out there. Claude Code CLI, Codex CLI, Opencode, Gemini CLI. They are all excellent tools, but they were built for senior software engineers with paid subscriptions, not for kids learning their first project. We wanted something different.

MT Code is free for our students out of the box. It connects to the Mind Theory AI server by default, which means no parent has to hand over a credit card or set up an API key for a child to start building. Older students who already have an Anthropic, OpenAI, or Kimi account can plug in their own paid API keys and use those instead.

The interface is also lighter. We stripped out the configuration menus and pro-engineer features that overwhelm a 12-year-old, and kept only what a student actually needs to ship a working app.

What students actually build

The fun begins once a student picks a project. Past students have built snake games with their own rules, faster snakes, growing obstacles, score screens that flash when a record breaks. Others have made Geometry Dash style web games with levels they designed themselves, complete with the spike traps and jump timing they thought would be most unfair to their friends.

A trading cards website is another favourite. Students learn how to make their own websites. A website is like their own shopping mall to the world. Next, grocery list apps are the popular practical one, the kind their parents can actually open on a phone and tick items off at the supermarket.

A Kanban board with draggable sticky notes is great for the students who like organising their to -do lists. Some use it for homework, some for keeping track of their sports or hobbies. Sporty students gravitate to fitness trackers that log their reps and show a weekly chart of how they are improving. Web games are the broadest category, anything from a retro space invaders game, to a platform side-scroller, to a quiz app for studying for an upcoming test.

What ties all these projects together is that the student thinks of their idea, determines the gameplay or the layout, decides the rules, and chooses what looks right on screen. MT Code handles the coding.

The student is the orchestrator, AI is the assistant

This is the philosophy that runs through the whole vibe coding camp. AI does not replace the student, it gives them a superpower. The student is still the one who decides the rules of the game, the colour of the cards, what counts as a win, when the project is finished.

The AI is a fast pair of hands. The student is the one with the vision.

There is a real difference between a kid who uses AI to do their homework, and a kid who uses AI to build something they are proud of and want to demo at the dinner table. The first kid is hiding behind the tool. The second kid is using it the way an adult engineer uses it. We are training the second kind.

Coding does not end when camp ends

Every student in the vibe coding camp takes MT Code home on their own laptop. The project they started in class is the project they keep iterating on at home, adding levels, fixing bugs, showing it off to friends and family.

This is the part most parents tell us they appreciate. A normal coding camp ends, the kid forgets about the web apps they use, and the momentum dies inside a week. With MT Code, the momentum carries on for as long as the student wants to keep building. We have students who started with a snake game in class and ended up with a small portfolio of apps a few months later, all because the tool was still on the laptop and the curiosity was still there.

Build your first app at our next Vibe Coding camp

If you would like your child to build their first real app under the guidance of an instructor, our next vibe coding camp is the place to start. Students learn to use MT Code in person, ship a working project by the end of the camp, then take the tool home to keep going. Have a look at the upcoming dates here.

Interested in bringing the vibe coding workshop to your school? Email us or WhatsApp us for a proposal and pricing.

Mind Theory is Singapore’s pioneering AI and creative-tech education provider, established March 2023, with hundreds of students across primary, secondary, and adult programmes. Read about Us.