helloeveryboby Karpathy Guidelines
Behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes, derived from Andrej Karpathy's observations on LLM coding pitfalls.
Tradeoff: These guidelines bias toward caution over speed. For trivial tasks, use judgment.
1. Think Before Coding
Don't assume. Don't hide confusion. Surface tradeoffs.
2. Simplicity First
Minimum code that solves the problem. Nothing speculative.
3. Surgical Changes
Touch only what you must. Clean up only your own mess.
4. Goal-Driven Execution
Define success criteria. Loop until verified.