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karpathy-coder

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Use before committing or while reviewing a diff, or when code may be overbuilt. Checks it against Karpathy's four principles with complexity_checker.py, diff_surgeon.py and assumption_linter.py: surface assumptions, keep it simple, change surgically, verify goals.

engineering/karpathy-coder/skills/karpathy-coder/SKILL.md

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# Karpathy Coder — Active Coding Discipline

Derived from [Andrej Karpathy's observations](https://x.com/karpathy/status/2015883857489522876) on LLM coding pitfalls. This is **not just guidelines** — it ships Python tools that detect violations, a review agent, a slash command, and a pre-commit hook.

> "The models make wrong assumptions on your behalf and just run along with them without checking. They don't manage their confusion, don't seek clarifications, don't surface inconsistencies, don't present tradeoffs, don't push back when they should."
>
> "They really like to overcomplicate code and APIs, bloat abstractions, don't clean up dead code... implement a bloated construction over 1000 lines when 100 would do."
>
> "LLMs are exceptionally good at looping until they meet specific goals... Don't tell it what to do, give it success criteria and watch it go."
>
> — Andrej Karpathy

## The four principles