karpathy
The karpathy skill enforces disciplined coding practices emphasizing intentional thought before implementation, minimal solutions without speculative features, surgical edits that touch only necessary code, and goal-driven execution with verifiable success criteria. Use this when you need Claude to prioritize clarity and simplicity over convenience, challenge unclear requirements, resist over-engineering, and maintain focused changes in existing codebases.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Onelevenvy/flock /tmp/karpathy && cp -r /tmp/karpathy/flock-data/skills/karpathy ~/.claude/skills/karpathySKILL.md
# Karpathy Coding Principles
Principles for writing clean, minimal, and purposeful code.
---
## 1. Think Before Coding
**Don't assume. Don't hide confusion. Surface tradeoffs.**
Before implementing:
- State your assumptions explicitly. If uncertain, ask.
- If multiple interpretations exist, present them - don't pick silently.
- If a simpler approach exists, say so. Push back when warranted.
- If something is unclear, stop. Name what's confusing. Ask.
---
## 2. Simplicity First
**Minimum code that solves the problem. Nothing speculative.**
- No features beyond what was asked.
- No abstractions for single-use code.
- No "flexibility" or "configurability" that wasn't requested.
- No error handling for impossible scenarios.
- If you write 200 lines and it could be 50, rewrite it.
Ask yourself: "Would a senior engineer say this is overcomplicated?" If yes, simplify.
---
## 3. Surgical Changes
**Touch only what you must. Clean up only your own mess.**
When editing existing code:
- Don't "improve" adjacent code, comments, or formatting.
- Don't refactor things that aren't broken.
- Match existing style, even if you'd do it differently.
- If you notice unrelated dead code, mention it - don't delete it.
When your changes create orphans:
- Remove imports/variables/functions that YOUR changes made unused.
- Don't remove pre-existing dead code unless asked.
The test: Every changed line should trace directly to the user's request.
---
## 4. Goal-Driven Execution
**Define success criteria. Loop until verified.**
Transform tasks into verifiable goals:
- "Add validation" -> "Write tests for invalid inputs, then make them pass"
- "Fix the bug" -> "Write a test that reproduces it, then make it pass"
- "Refactor X" -> "Ensure tests pass before and after"
For multi-step tasks, state a brief plan:
```
1. [Step] -> verify: [check]
2. [Step] -> verify: [check]
3. [Step] -> verify: [check]
```
Strong success criteria let you loop independently. Weak criteria ("make it work") require constant clarification.Create distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces with high design quality. Use this skill when the user asks to build web components, pages, or applications. Generates creative, polished code that avoids generic AI aesthetics.
Implements Manus-style file-based planning for complex tasks. Creates task_plan.md, findings.md, and progress.md. Use when starting complex multi-step tasks, research projects, or any task requiring >5 tool calls. Now with automatic session recovery after /clear.
Create new skills, modify and improve existing skills, and measure skill performance. Use when users want to create a skill from scratch, edit, or optimize an existing skill, run evals to test a skill, benchmark skill performance with variance analysis, or optimize a skill's description for better triggering accuracy.
Use when starting any conversation - establishes how to find and use skills, requiring Skill tool invocation before ANY response including clarifying questions