# Karpathy Wiki > Use when building or maintaining a personal knowledge base with LLM assistance. Triggers on ingesting sources, compiling wiki articles, querying knowledge, running health checks, deep research, or initializing a new wiki vault. Based on Karpathy's LLM Wiki pattern with Obsidian integration. - Skill: `tomevault-io/karpathy-wiki` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tomevault-io/karpathy-wiki` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tomevault-io/karpathy-wiki/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - Author: tomevault-io (https://skillmd.com/u/tomevault-io) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tomevault-io/karpathy-wiki --- # Karpathy Wiki LLM-driven personal knowledge base that compounds over time. Raw sources in, structured wiki out. > You never write the wiki. The LLM writes everything. You just steer, and every answer compounds. ## When to Use - User wants to ingest documents, URLs, or text into a knowledge base - User wants to query, compile, or maintain wiki articles - User needs deep research to fill knowledge gaps - User wants to initialize a new wiki vault ## When NOT to Use - One-off Q&A without persistent knowledge storage - Note-taking without cross-referencing or structure - Non-text content management (images, videos alone) ## Core Principles 1. **raw/ is immutable** — sources are never edited; re-ingest as new version 2. **purpose.md anchors direction** — read on every operation, align output with wiki goals 3. **Classify before extract** — determine entity type during Ingest, choose chapter structure during Compile 4. **Analyze before generate** — two-step Compile: structured analysis → article generation 5. **Backlink audit is mandatory** — bidirectional links are the knowledge graph 6. **Query answers must be archived** — good answers are compounding fuel 7. **Token budget first** — always read index before full articles (L0→L1→L2→L3) 8. **Human verifies, LLM maintains** — LLM writes, user steers ## Pipeline | Stage | Input | Output | |-------|-------|--------| | **Ingest** | URLs, files, text | `raw/` (immutable) + hash cache | | **Compile** | raw/ files | `wiki//` articles by entity type | | **Query** | Questions | Cited answers → `outputs/queries/` | | **Lint** | Full wiki | Health report → `outputs/reports/` | Each stage appends `log.md`. Lint and Query can trigger **Deep Research** to fill gaps. ## Token Budget | Level | ~Tokens | When | What | |-------|---------|------|------| | L0 | ~200 | Every session | SKILL.md frontmatter | | L1 | ~1-2K | Session start | purpose.md + Concept Index + Dashboard | | L2 | ~2-5K | Search | Result summaries | | L3 | 5-20K | Deep read | Full articles or raw sources | ## Entity Types 7 types, each with different required sections (see `references/entity-types.md`): `concept` (default) · `person` · `tool` · `event` · `comparison` · `pattern` · `overview` ## Commands | Command | Action | |---------|--------| | `init [path] [--template ]` | Initialize vault (templates: general/research/reading/project) | | `ingest ` | Collect + classify + archive (no wiki generation) | | `compile [topic]` | Two-step: analyze → generate wiki article | | `query ` | Answer from wiki, archive result | | `promote` | Elevate quality query answer to wiki article | | `research ` | Gap → web search → ingest → compile loop | | `delete ` | Safe delete with cascade cleanup | | `lint` | Health check + graph analysis | ## Conventions - **Obsidian CLI first** for page operations (see `references/obsidian-cli-cheatsheet.md`) - **Structured diff** for updates: Current/Proposed/Reason/Source, user confirms each - **Sources traceability**: frontmatter `sources[]` links every wiki page to raw/ files - **Incremental cache**: SHA256 hash in `.cache/` skips unchanged sources ## References - `references/operations.md` — Full procedures for all 9 operations - `references/frontmatter-schemas.md` · `compilation-guide.md` · `entity-types.md` · `obsidian-cli-cheatsheet.md` - `assets/` — All templates (purpose, wiki article, raw, query, indexes, log) - `scripts/` — `init-wiki.sh` (with `--template`), `parse-media.py` --- > Source: [SherwinQ/karpathy-wiki](https://github.com/SherwinQ/karpathy-wiki) — distributed by [TomeVault](https://tomevault.io).