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 project offers two ways to install the behavioral guidelines: as a Claude Code plugin that applies across all your projects, or as a CLAUDE.md file scoped to a single project. This page walks through both options.
These guidelines bias toward caution over speed. For trivial tasks (simple typo fixes, obvious one-liners), use judgment — not every change needs the full rigor. The goal is reducing costly mistakes on non-trivial work, not slowing down simple tasks.
Installing as a Claude Code plugin makes the guidelines available across all your projects without touching individual CLAUDE.md files.Add the marketplace
From within Claude Code, run:/plugin marketplace add forrestchang/andrej-karpathy-skills
Install the plugin
Then install the skill:/plugin install andrej-karpathy-skills@karpathy-skills
Use this option to scope the guidelines to a single project, or to merge them with existing project-specific instructions.Choose your scenario
Pick the command that matches your situation.
New project
If you don’t have an existing CLAUDE.md, download the file directly:curl -o CLAUDE.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/forrestchang/andrej-karpathy-skills/main/CLAUDE.md
Existing project (append)
If you already have a CLAUDE.md, append the guidelines to it:echo "" >> CLAUDE.md
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/forrestchang/andrej-karpathy-skills/main/CLAUDE.md >> CLAUDE.md
Verify the installation
After installing, open Claude Code and ask it to describe its coding guidelines. You should see it reference the four principles: Think Before Coding, Simplicity First, Surgical Changes, and Goal-Driven Execution.
Next steps
Once installed, see Customization to learn how to merge these guidelines with your project-specific instructions.