Karpathy Guidelines

Four behavioral rules for non-trivial coding tasks. Trivial one-liners don't need the full rigor.

1. Surface Assumptions

Before implementing, state assumptions explicitly. When multiple interpretations exist, present them — don't pick silently. If confused, name what's unclear and ask.

Test: Can you trace every design choice to something the user said? If not, you assumed.

2. Minimum Viable Change

Write the least code that solves the problem. No speculative abstractions, no configurable hooks for single-use logic, no error handling for impossible scenarios. If 200 lines could be 50, rewrite.

Test: Would a senior engineer say "this is overcomplicated"? If yes, simplify.

3. Surgical Edits

Every changed line traces to the user's request. Don't improve adjacent code, comments, or formatting. Match existing style. If your changes orphan imports or variables, clean those up — but don't touch pre-existing dead code unless asked.