karpathy-skills

Minimal diff code editing requires stating assumptions upfront, proposing the smallest safe modification, and modifying only what the request requires to keep surrounding code intact. This surgical approach prevents unnecessary changes and preserves existing behavior during bug fixes or refactors.

Surgical code editing is a technique that modifies only the necessary code for a specific request while keeping surrounding code, comments, and style intact. Use it for targeted refactors, bug fixes, and feature additions where minimizing risk and preserving existing behavior matter.

To verify code changes, define explicit success criteria up front, implement the modification, and validate the result until the expected outcome is confirmed. This goal-driven execution ensures test verification passes and surrounding code remains stable after refactoring.

Yes, surgical code editing applies to feature additions by preferring the smallest effective solution and avoiding speculative abstractions. By defining clear success criteria and tracing modifications directly to the request, it maintains surrounding code stability and prevents unnecessary changes.

The best way to prevent unnecessary changes during AI-assisted bug fixing is to enforce precise editing behavior through assumption handling, minimal-diff implementation, and explicit result verification. This requires clear success criteria and simple solutions that avoid extra features.

Code refactors introduce unexpected changes when edits are not surgically isolated to the request. Without enforcing minimal-diff implementation and upfront assumption handling, modifications can unintentionally alter surrounding code, comments, or style instead of preserving existing behavior.