Slash Command

/karpathy-check

Run Karpathy's 4-principle review on staged changes or the last commit. Checks complexity, diff noise, hidden assumptions, and goal verification. Usage /karpathy-check [--last-commit]

Invocation

How this command is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both

Slash command

/karpathy-coder:karpathy-check

Model invocable

No pre-commands

Context Preview

The summary Claude sees in its command listing — used to decide when to auto-load this command

# /karpathy-check

Review your staged changes (or last commit) against Karpathy's 4 coding principles.

## Usage



## What it runs

1. **Principle #2 (Simplicity):** `skills/karpathy-coder/scripts/complexity_checker.py` on all changed files — detects over-engineering, premature abstractions, deep nesting, long functions
2. **Principle #3 (Surgical):** `skills/karpathy-coder/scripts/diff_surgeon.py` on the diff — detects comment-only changes, whitespace noise, style drift, drive-by refactors
3. **Principles #1 + #4 (Think + Goals):** The `karpathy-reviewer` agent reads the diff and applies ...

Command Content

47 lines · ~453 tokens

Stats

LanguagePython

Parent stars0

MaintenanceGood

Last CommitJun 23, 2026

Actions

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Stats

Actions

/karpathy-check

Review your staged changes (or last commit) against Karpathy's 4 coding principles.

Usage

/karpathy-check                 # review staged changes
/karpathy-check --last-commit   # review the most recent commit

What it runs

Principle #2 (Simplicity): skills/karpathy-coder/scripts/complexity_checker.py on all changed files — detects over-engineering, premature abstractions, deep nesting, long functions
Principle #3 (Surgical): skills/karpathy-coder/scripts/diff_surgeon.py on the diff — detects comment-only changes, whitespace noise, style drift, drive-by refactors
Principles #1 + #4 (Think + Goals): The karpathy-reviewer agent reads the diff and applies human-judgment checks — hidden assumptions, missing verification

Output

A structured report with per-principle verdicts and specific line-level fix recommendations.

When to run

Before committing (catches noise and overcomplication early)
After completing a feature (sanity check before PR)
When you suspect the LLM overcoded something

Sub-agent

Dispatches the karpathy-reviewer agent. See agents/karpathy-reviewer.md.

Scripts

engineering/karpathy-coder/skills/karpathy-coder/scripts/complexity_checker.py
engineering/karpathy-coder/skills/karpathy-coder/scripts/diff_surgeon.py
engineering/karpathy-coder/skills/karpathy-coder/scripts/assumption_linter.py
engineering/karpathy-coder/skills/karpathy-coder/scripts/goal_verifier.py

Skill Reference

→ engineering/karpathy-coder/skills/karpathy-coder/SKILL.md