Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/multica-ai/andrej-karpathy-skills/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

The Andrej Karpathy Skills guidelines are designed to be merged with project-specific instructions — they’re a foundation, not a replacement for context about your codebase. This page explains how to combine them with your own rules and when to adjust the tradeoffs they introduce.

​
Merging with project-specific instructions

Whether you installed via the Claude Code plugin or by adding CLAUDE.md directly, you can extend the guidelines with rules specific to your project. Add sections to your CLAUDE.md after the four principles: 
## Project-Specific Guidelines

- Use TypeScript strict mode
- All API endpoints must have tests
- Follow the existing error handling patterns in `src/utils/errors.ts`
Your project-specific sections sit alongside the four principles. Claude Code reads the full file, so both sets of instructions apply.

​
Adding to an existing CLAUDE.md

If you already have a CLAUDE.md with project rules and want to add the Karpathy guidelines, append them: 
echo "" >> CLAUDE.md
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/forrestchang/andrej-karpathy-skills/main/CLAUDE.md >> CLAUDE.md
This preserves your existing instructions and adds the behavioral guidelines below them.

​
Tradeoff: caution vs. speed

These guidelines bias toward caution over speed. That’s the right call for non-trivial work — it prevents costly mistakes and unnecessary rewrites. For trivial tasks (a simple typo fix, an obvious one-liner), use judgment. Not every change needs the full rigor of stating assumptions and verifying success criteria.
The goal is reducing costly mistakes on complex work, not adding overhead to simple tasks.

​
FAQ

For trivial tasks — simple typo fixes, obvious one-liners, single-character changes — the full rigor of Think Before Coding and Goal-Driven Execution adds overhead without benefit. The guidelines exist to prevent costly mistakes on non-trivial work. Use judgment on what qualifies.
Project-specific rules take precedence for project-specific concerns. If your project requires a particular error handling pattern, that overrides the general “no error handling for impossible scenarios” guideline. The four principles are behavioral defaults, not absolute rules.
Yes. The CLAUDE.md file is plain text — edit it directly to remove principles that don’t apply, tighten wording, or add exceptions. The plugin version installs from a remote source; if you need to customize it, use the CLAUDE.md approach instead so you have full control over the content.
When installed as a plugin, the guidelines apply globally across all projects. Project-level CLAUDE.md files are read in addition to the plugin, so you can add project-specific rules without duplicating the four principles. If you install via both methods, Claude Code will see the guidelines twice — use one approach per project.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us