---
type: entity
subtype: person
title: "Andrej Karpathy"
description: "AI engineer who coined 'vibe coding' in February 2025 and popularized the LLM-built personal knowledge base (the 'Karpathy LLM Wiki')."
resource: "https://x.com/karpathy"
tags: [ai-engineer, vibe-coding, llm-wiki]
videos: [i-love-the-karpathy-llm-wiki-but-it-doesnt-scale-heres-what-does, finally-an-open-standard-for-the-karpathy-llm-wiki-is-here, ai-youtube-is-only-claude-hype-now, i-built-self-evolving-claude-code-memory-w-karpathys-llm-knowledge-bases, ralph-wiggum-is-the-final-evolution-of-vibe-coding-heres-what-comes-next, ai-exploded-in-2025-heres-everything-that-happened, context-engineering-is-the-new-vibe-coding-learn-this-now]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# Andrej Karpathy

Andrej Karpathy is the AI engineer whose offhand naming has repeatedly seeded whole practices in Cole's world. Most famously, "Andrej Karpathy coined the term vibe coding" ([0:00:00]), the February-2025 tweet that defined a moment in [The Evolution of AI Coding](../../concepts/the-evolution-of-ai-coding.md). His second durable contribution is the pattern of using an LLM to build and maintain personal knowledge bases: Cole quotes him directly, "Karpathy starts by saying something I'm finding very useful recently is using LLM to build personal knowledge bases for various topics of research interest" ([0:00:29]). That idea, shared as a single gist, became a phenomenon: "This single markdown document in GitHub called it gist got to 40,000 stars" ([0:00:19]).

Karpathy functions in this catalog as the origin point Cole builds on and, gently, argues with. He is credited as the source of [Vibe Coding](../../concepts/vibe-coding.md) and of [The LLM Wiki](../../concepts/the-llm-wiki.md), and Cole treats his releases as channel-defining events: "when Karpathy releases LLM Wiki architecture, I covered that" ([0:02:10]). But Cole's engagement is not pure agreement. His own [Second Brain](../../concepts/second-brain.md) exists precisely because he thinks the raw Karpathy wiki "doesn't scale," and he notes with interest that Karpathy "is spending more of his tokens with his agents manipulating knowledge like Markdown and Obsidian instead of manipulating code" ([0:02:22]), a shift that anticipates [Context Engineering](../../concepts/context-engineering.md) and [Progressive Disclosure](../../concepts/progressive-disclosure.md) over knowledge. Notably, Karpathy later endorsed the successor term too: "Context engineering was even condoned by Andrej who originally coined Vibe coding" ([0:02:21]).

## Realizes

- [Vibe Coding](../../concepts/vibe-coding.md) - Building software by conversationally prompting an AI without closely reading the code, useful for prototypes but risky for production.
- [The LLM Wiki](../../concepts/the-llm-wiki.md) - An LLM-maintained knowledge base of plain markdown pages that compiles sources into a navigable, self-referential wiki.
- [The Evolution of AI Coding](../../concepts/the-evolution-of-ai-coding.md) - How AI coding assistants moved from novelty to daily driver, and where the landscape, adoption, and commentary are heading.

## Related

- [Second Brain](../../concepts/second-brain.md) - A personal, always-on AI system that captures, recalls, and acts on your knowledge and daily context.
- [Knowledge Bases](../../concepts/knowledge-bases.md) - Curated bodies of knowledge an agent can retrieve from, distinct from raw model weights, that ground responses in trusted source material.
- [Context Engineering](../../concepts/context-engineering.md) - The deliberate practice of curating exactly what goes into an LLM's limited context window - system messages, schemas, chat history, and dynamic variables - to avoid overload and keep outputs sharp.
- [Progressive Disclosure](../../concepts/progressive-disclosure.md) - Loading context, skills, and tools on demand only when a task needs them instead of front-loading everything into the context window.
- [Cole Medin](./cole-medin.md) - AI engineer and educator whose YouTube channel and Dynamous community teach agentic coding; creator of Archon and the source of this entire knowledge base.
- [Open Knowledge Format (OKF)](../../concepts/open-knowledge-format.md) - A minimal open standard layered on the Karpathy LLM wiki that fixes how a knowledge base is organized and what metadata its pages carry, so any agent can navigate one it has never seen.

## Sources

- [Context Engineering is the New Vibe Coding (Learn this Now)](../../sources/context-engineering-is-the-new-vibe-coding-learn-this-now.md) - "[0:00:00] Andrej Karpathy coined the term vibe coding."
- [I Built Self-Evolving Claude Code Memory w/ Karpathy's LLM Knowledge Bases](../../sources/i-built-self-evolving-claude-code-memory-w-karpathys-llm-knowledge-bases.md) - "[0:00:29] Karpathy starts by saying something I'm finding very useful recently is using LLM to build personal knowledge bases for various topics of research interest."
- [Finally, an Open Standard for the Karpathy LLM Wiki is HERE](../../sources/finally-an-open-standard-for-the-karpathy-llm-wiki-is-here.md) - "[0:00:19] This single markdown document in GitHub called it gist got to 40,000 stars."
- [I Love the Karpathy LLM Wiki but it Doesn't Scale. Here's What Does.](../../sources/i-love-the-karpathy-llm-wiki-but-it-doesnt-scale-heres-what-does.md) - "[0:00:14] typically you'll have something like a Karpathy LLM Wiki for your organization."
- [Ralph Wiggum is the Final Evolution of Vibe Coding (Here's What Comes Next)](../../sources/ralph-wiggum-is-the-final-evolution-of-vibe-coding-heres-what-comes-next.md) - "[0:03:05] when vibe coding was coined at the start of last year, there were a few phrases that were used in Andrej Karpathy's original tweet."
- [AI Exploded in 2025 - Here's Everything That Happened](../../sources/ai-exploded-in-2025-heres-everything-that-happened.md) - "[0:02:38] the AI engineer Andrej Karpathy coined the term Vibe coding."
- [AI YouTube Is Only Claude Hype Now](../../sources/ai-youtube-is-only-claude-hype-now.md) - "[0:02:10] when Karpathy releases LLM Wiki architecture, I covered that."
