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nanogpt

Educational GPT implementation in ~300 lines. Reproduces GPT-2 (124M) on OpenWebText. Clean, hackable code for learning transformers. By Andrej Karpathy. Perfect for understanding GPT architecture from scratch. Train on Shakespeare (CPU) or OpenWebText (multi-GPU).

64

Quality

77%

Does it follow best practices?

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SecuritybySnyk

Low

Low-risk findings worth noting

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tessl review fix ./01-model-architecture/nanogpt/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

72%

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

A highly actionable, well-structured body with excellent progressive disclosure via real reference files, held back by mild verbosity (redundant comments and a duplicated quick-start workflow) and the absence of explicit validation checkpoints in its training workflows.

Suggestions

Add explicit validation/feedback steps to the training workflows (e.g. confirm train.bin/val.bin were created after prepare.py, check that val loss is decreasing at eval_interval, verify the sampled output before declaring success).

De-duplicate the Quick start against Workflow 1 and trim config comments that restate obvious concepts (n_layer, n_head, block_size) to recover conciseness.

Add a brief checkpoint note for the multi-GPU GPT-2 run (e.g. how to resume from checkpoint, how to confirm DDP is healthy) given its 4-day runtime.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

Mostly efficient with executable examples, but config comments re-explain basics Claude already knows ('# 6 transformer layers', '# 6 attention heads', '# 384-dim embeddings') and the Quick start section repeats the same prepare/train/sample commands shown again in Workflow 1, so it does not reach the lean 'every token earns its place' level 3.

2 / 3

Actionability

Provides fully executable, copy-paste-ready commands and code throughout — 'pip install ...', 'python train.py config/train_shakespeare_char.py', 'torchrun --standalone --nproc_per_node=8 train.py config/train_gpt2.py', complete config files, and a full custom-dataset prepare.py — matching the 'fully executable code/commands' anchor.

3 / 3

Workflow Clarity

Workflows have clear numbered sequences (Step 1: Prepare data, Step 2: Train, Step 3: Generate) but lack explicit validation checkpoints; because training is a long-running/batch operation, the guideline capping workflow clarity at 2 for missing validation applies, even though the 'Common issues' section offers partial error recovery.

2 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

The body is organized into clear sections and the 'Advanced topics' block links to three real, one-level-deep bundle files (references/architecture.md, references/training.md, references/data.md), each clearly signaled with a description of its contents, matching the 'clear overview with well-signaled one-level-deep references' anchor.

3 / 3

Total

10

/

12

Passed

Description

82%

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

A strong, concrete description with good trigger terms and a distinct niche, weakened only by the absence of an explicit 'Use when...' clause that would signal exactly when Claude should invoke the skill.

Suggestions

Add an explicit trigger clause, e.g. 'Use when the user wants to learn, build, or train a GPT/transformer from scratch, reproduce GPT-2, or experiment with a minimal nanoGPT-style implementation.'

Include 'nanoGPT' and 'minimalist'/'Karpathy' as literal trigger terms so users referencing the well-known repo by name match naturally.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists multiple concrete actions — 'Reproduces GPT-2 (124M)', 'Train on Shakespeare (CPU) or OpenWebText (multi-GPU)', and 'understanding GPT architecture from scratch' — matching the 'lists multiple specific concrete actions' anchor rather than the single-action level 2.

3 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers 'what' (educational GPT implementation, reproduces GPT-2, trains on Shakespeare/OpenWebText) but has no explicit 'Use when...' trigger clause; the guideline caps completeness at 2 when 'when' is only implied, so it does not reach the level-3 explicit-trigger bar.

2 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Includes natural terms a user would actually say — 'GPT', 'GPT-2', 'transformers', 'train', 'from scratch' — giving good coverage rather than just one keyword (level 2) or jargon (level 1).

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Occupies a clear niche (educational nanoGPT / GPT-2 reproduction) with distinct triggers unlikely to conflict with other skills, matching the 'clear niche with distinct triggers' anchor.

3 / 3

Total

11

/

12

Passed

Validation

93%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

frontmatter_unknown_keys

Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata

Warning

Total

15

/

16

Passed

Repository
Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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