andrej-karpathy SKILL.md skillA
andrej-karpathy from sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills/andrej-karpathy@git:20260708.a07936cPins git:20260708.a07936c in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills
- Path
plugins/agentic-awesome-skills-claude/skills/andrej-karpathy/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260708.a07936c, committed Jul 8, 2026
- Size
- 4,145 bytes
- Repository stars
- 49,308
- License
- MIT
Behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes. Use when writing, reviewing, or refactoring code to avoid overcomplication, make surgical changes, surface assumptions, and define verifiable success criteria.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Karpathy Guidelines Behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes, derived from [Andrej Karpathy's observations](https://x.com/karpathy/status/2015883857489522876) on LLM coding pitfalls. **Tradeoff:** These guidelines bias toward caution over speed. For trivial tasks, use judgment. ## When to Use This Skill - Use when writing, reviewing, or refactoring code with an LLM. - Use when a change needs to stay surgical and avoid speculative abstractions. - Use when assumptions, tradeoffs, and verification criteria should be made explicit. - Use when code has become overcomplicated and needs to be simplified. ## 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. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills/andrej-karpathy@sha256:0516f187326dac94The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260708.a07936c, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_wavlrgbjpxol5un2)
5 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Jul 8, 2026.
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (4145 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills · 49,308 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-11-06 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_wavlrgbjpxol5un2 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills/andrej-karpathy GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/0516f187326dac943d338c17f8f408925bc64783da043c5fcc42082a50b6b01f
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.
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