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.
Karpathy Coder is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the general-misc sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-coder/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.
When to invoke it: Use when writing, reviewing, or committing code to enforce Karpathy's 4 coding principles — surface assumptions before coding, keep it simple, make surgical changes, define verifiable goals. Triggers on "review my diff", "check complexity", "am I overcomplicating this", "karpathy check", "before I commit", or any code quality concern where the LLM might be overcoding.
The Karpathy Coder 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 69,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-coder curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/karpathy-coder/SKILL.md \ -o ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-coder/SKILL.md
Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-coder/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.
Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/karpathy-coder/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\karpathy-coder\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.
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.
For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.
Browse all General skills in the ClaudSkills registry, or explore these other picks from the same category:
Part of Acreator Store — Adam Lankamer's AI tools: PerfectStudio · Ucaption · UTagger · AutoXPoster · TestYourSkills · AutomationFlows · Au Naturel
SKILL.md files, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic.