Andrej Karpathy Skills (Cursor & VS Code)

Turns the Karpathy-inspired coding guidelines into rule files you can use in Cursor and VS Code.

Disclaimer: This plugin was written using the Cursor agent as part of the Samotics AI Challenge Day.

Install (recommended)

VS Code: Open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X), search for “Andrej Karpathy Skills”, and install.

• Install in VS Code (Microsoft Marketplace)

Cursor: Cursor uses the Open VSX Registry, not the Microsoft Marketplace. Search for “Andrej Karpathy Skills” in the Extensions view, or install from Open VSX:

• Install in Cursor (Open VSX)

About the “untrusted publisher” warning: VS Code may show a warning that the publisher is not verified. This extension is new; Microsoft requires publishers to have had an extension on the marketplace for at least 6 months before they can apply for the verified badge. The warning is expected and safe to accept. Verification will be requested once eligible.

After installing, open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) and run:

• Karpathy Rules: Add to project (.cursor/rules) — adds the guidelines to .cursor/rules/ with alwaysApply: true (recommended for Cursor).
• Karpathy Rules: Add to .cursorrules (legacy) — appends to .cursorrules in the project root.

The four principles

1. Think Before Coding — Don’t assume; surface tradeoffs and ask when unclear.
2. Simplicity First — Minimum code, no speculative features or abstractions.
3. Surgical Changes — Touch only what’s needed; don’t “improve” unrelated code.
4. Goal-Driven Execution — Define success criteria and verify (e.g. with tests).

A note on “just markdown”

I find it a bit wild that extensions for your editor can be little more than a markdown file of sixty-odd lines—no runtime, no dependencies—and still resonate enough to get 3,500+ stars on GitHub, like the original Claude Karpathy skills repo. The leverage is in the instructions, not the machinery. This extension is a small step to get that same content one click away in Cursor and VS Code.

If this repo is useful to you, don’t forget to ⭐ star it—it helps others find it.

Manual setup (without the extension)

If you prefer not to use the extension:

• Cursor: Copy rules/karpathy-guidelines.md into your project as .cursor/rules/karpathy-guidelines.md (or .mdc); add alwaysApply: true in frontmatter if desired.
• Legacy: Copy the contents into a .cursorrules file in your project root.

License

Guidelines adapted from forrestchang/andrej-karpathy-skills (MIT). This repo’s conversion and extension are under the same spirit; see upstream for exact terms.