Codswallop

Vibe coding. We’ve heard of it, and we know why it's popular. But for an entire generation of computer science students, it’s becoming a trap. When a student relies entirely on AI—copying, pasting, and submitting without thinking—they put their future career at risk.

This creates a dilemma for many educators: they need to accurately assess student's coding abilities and provide guidance. At the same time banning AI is not the answer. It is a powerful tool that everyone needs to master to remain future ready. How then do we resolve this?

We believe we have the answer. We realised the solution wasn't surveillance or bans. It was accountability at the moment of paste. We built Codswallop as a VSCode extension that monitors coding behavior in real-time, detecting three key patterns: large paste operations, rapid line additions, and high cyclomatic complexity. When triggered, it uses Claude's API to generate context-aware quiz questions about the specific code the student just added. The entire stack is TypeScript: a Next.js 15 dashboard for teachers, a Convex real-time database for instant sync, Clerk for authentication, and an MCP server deployed on Vercel for AI-powered quiz generation. We even added an animated blob character called "Vibe" that reacts to student behavior, making the experience engaging rather than punitive.

The biggest technical challenge was making detection feel instant without being annoying. We implemented a 60-second cooldown per code location and tuned our thresholds extensively. Too sensitive and students get frustrated, too lenient and vibe coding slips through.

Built With

• anthropic
• claude
• clerk
• clerk-(authentication)-apis:-anthropic-claude-api-(ai-quiz-generation)
• convex
• convex-(real-time-database)
• cyclomatic-complexity-analysis
• mcp
• model-context-protocol-(mcp)-key-technologies:-real-time-sync
• next.js
• react-18
• tailwindcss
• tailwindcss-platforms:-vscode-extension
• typescript
• vercel
• vscode
• web
• web-(vercel)-cloud-services:-vercel-(hosting)