ClaudSkills / General / orchestration-frameworks

Karpathy Baseline

Q: What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Karpathy Baseline skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Karpathy Baseline is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the General category. Learn more at https://claudskills.com/learn/what-is-skill-md/.

Category: General · Sub-category: orchestration-frameworks · Last updated: 2026-05-30

ALWAYS apply Karpathy 4 心法 baseline to every coding decision: Think Before Coding / Simplicity First (YAGNI) / Surgical Changes / Goal-Driven Execution. Cross-cutting always-on heuristics — applies to ALL coding tasks regardless of language, framework, or phase. Source: andrej-karpathy-skills (forrestchang, MIT) — distilled.

About this skill (catalog notes)

Karpathy Baseline is published as a SKILL.md file in this catalog. The SKILL.md is on the shorter side at about 218 words.

Source: harnessed.cc
License: Apache-2.0
Original author: easyinplay
Indexed lastmod: 2026-05-30
Catalog position: General · orchestration-frameworks
Indexed related skills: 10

How Karpathy Baseline fits the catalog

Karpathy Baseline sits in the General category under the orchestration-frameworks sub-topic in the ClaudSkills catalog. There are 10 related skills indexed alongside it; comparing a few before installing usually reveals which fits your workflow best.

These notes are auto-generated from features detected in the SKILL.md file and from this catalog's structure — they aren't part of the source repository.

From the source SKILL.md

ALWAYS apply these 4 心法 to every coding decision in this session. This skill is cross-cutting baseline behavior, not an opt-in tool — invoke implicitly on every implementation task, design decision, edit, and verification step.

What this skill does

Karpathy Baseline is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the orchestration-frameworks sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-baseline/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.

Who uses this skill

The Karpathy Baseline Claude Code skill is built for Claude Code users and developers across all disciplines looking for general-purpose AI assistance. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 76,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).

How to install

Free

Manual install (2 steps)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-baseline
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/karpathy-baseline/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-baseline/SKILL.md

Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-baseline/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.

Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-baseline/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\karpathy-baseline\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.

Pro

One-click install via the desktop app

The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.

Pro

For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.

See pricing → Download desktop app

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Karpathy Baseline Claude Code skill?

Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-baseline/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.

What does the Karpathy Baseline skill do?

Is this skill free to install?

Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.

When should I use the Karpathy Baseline skill?

Use Karpathy Baseline when your Claude Code task falls under the General category — specifically in the orchestration frameworks area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Karpathy Baseline" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at /category/general/.

What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Karpathy Baseline skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Karpathy Baseline is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the General category. Learn more at /learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.

Attribution & license

Source: https://github.com/easyinplay/harnessed/blob/HEAD/skills/karpathy-baseline/SKILL.md
License: Apache-2.0
Author: easyinplay
Website: https://harnessed.cc/

Cite this skill

If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:

APA

easyinplay. (2026). Karpathy Baseline [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/karpathy-baseline/

BibTeX

@misc{karpathy-baseline-2026,
  author    = {easyinplay},
  title     = {Karpathy Baseline [Claude Code skill]},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {ClaudSkills},
  url       = {https://claudskills.com/skills/karpathy-baseline/}
}

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