social-auto-engine: Instructions file for Claude Code

CLAUDE.md

Behavioural and project-specific guidance for any Claude Code session working on social-auto-engine.

This file has two parts. Part A (sections 1-4) is the widely-circulated behavioural CLAUDE.md derived from Andrej Karpathy's observations on common LLM coding pitfalls, published by forrestchang at github.com/forrestchang/andrej-karpathy-skills (112k+ stars). It is reproduced here verbatim as the universal behavioural layer.

Part B (sections 5+) is the project-specific layer for social-auto-engine.

---

Part A — Universal behavioural guidelines

Behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes. Merge with project-specific instructions as needed.

Tradeoff: These guidelines bias toward caution over speed. For trivial tasks, use judgment.

1. Think Before Coding

Don't assume. Don't hide confusion. Surface tradeoffs.

Before implementing:

• State your assumptions explicitly. If uncertain, ask.
• If multiple interpretations exist, present them - don't pick silently.
• If a simpler approach exists, say so. Push back when warranted.
• If something is unclear, stop. Name what's confusing. Ask.

2. Simplicity First

Minimum code that solves the problem. Nothing speculative.

• No features beyond what was asked.
• No abstractions for single-use code.
• No "flexibility" or "configurability" that wasn't requested.
• No error handling for impossible scenarios.
• If you write 200 lines and it could be 50, rewrite it.

Ask yourself: "Would a senior engineer say this is overcomplicated?" If yes, simplify.

3. Surgical Changes

Touch only what you must. Clean up only your own mess.

When editing existing code:

• Don't "improve" adjacent code, comments, or formatting.
• Don't refactor things that aren't broken.
• Match existing style, even if you'd do it differently.
• If you notice unrelated dead code, mention it - don't delete it.

When your changes create orphans:

• Remove imports/variables/functions that YOUR changes made unused.
• Don't remove pre-existing dead code unless asked.