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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.karpathy.phronesisagent.com/llms.txt

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

The same four principles — Think Before Coding, Simplicity First, Surgical Changes, and Goal-Driven Execution — apply in Cursor through a committed .cursor/rules/ file. Because the rule is checked into the repository, anyone who opens the project in Cursor gets consistent behavior without any manual configuration.

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Using the committed project rule

The repository includes .cursor/rules/karpathy-guidelines.mdc with alwaysApply: true. When you open the project in Cursor, the rule activates automatically.
1

Open the project in Cursor

Open the andrej-karpathy-skills folder in Cursor as you would any project.
2

Confirm the rule is active

Navigate to Settings → Rules (or the project rules panel) and verify that karpathy-guidelines appears in the list.
3

Start working

The rule is applied to every new conversation in this project. No further setup is needed.

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Using the rule in another project

Copy the rule file into any project where you want the same guidelines.
1

Create the rules directory if it doesn't exist

mkdir -p .cursor/rules
2

Copy the rule file

cp path/to/andrej-karpathy-skills/.cursor/rules/karpathy-guidelines.mdc \
   .cursor/rules/karpathy-guidelines.mdc
3

Commit the file

Commit .cursor/rules/karpathy-guidelines.mdc so the rule is shared with your team automatically.
You can adjust or merge the rule with any existing rules already in that directory.

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Personal Cursor skill (optional)

If you prefer a reusable personal skill rather than a per-project file, use skills/karpathy-guidelines/SKILL.md. Copy or symlink it into your personal Cursor skills directory: 
# Copy
cp skills/karpathy-guidelines/SKILL.md ~/.cursor/skills/karpathy-guidelines.md

# Or symlink
ln -s "$(pwd)/skills/karpathy-guidelines/SKILL.md" \
      ~/.cursor/skills/karpathy-guidelines.md
Use whatever layout you already follow for other personal skills.
A personal skill applies to you across all projects on your machine. A committed .cursor/rules/ file applies to everyone who opens that project. Choose based on whether you want individual or team-wide coverage.

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Claude Code vs Cursor

The two tools use different mechanisms to load instructions, so the same content lives in two places:
Claude CodeCursor
How rules are loadedPlugin marketplace or CLAUDE.mdCommitted .cursor/rules/ file
ScopePlugin applies globally; CLAUDE.md applies per-projectPer-project by default
Installation/plugin install andrej-karpathy-skills@karpathy-skillsCopy .cursor/rules/karpathy-guidelines.mdc
Reads the other tool’s config?Reads CLAUDE.mdDoes not read .claude-plugin/ or CLAUDE.md
When you change the four principles, keep CLAUDE.md and .cursor/rules/karpathy-guidelines.mdc in sync. If you also use the published plugin or skill, update skills/karpathy-guidelines/SKILL.md as well so all three sources stay consistent.