nanoGPT

by Orchestra-Research

nanoGPT is an AI Engineering skill for Claude Code, published by Orchestra-Research in AI-Research-SKILLs.

11.6K stars838 forkson Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLsAdded 2026/07/19+1% in starsRepository updated 2026/06/16

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aiai-researchclaudeclaude-codeclaude-skillscodexgeminigpt-5grpohuggingfacemachine-leanringmegatronskillsvllm

Install in seconds

Install nanoGPT

Copy nanoGPT into your Claude Code skills folder. Run the command in your terminal, or review the source on GitHub before installing.

terminal

npx degit https://github.com/Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs/tree/main/01-model-architecture/nanogpt ~/.claude/skills/nanogpt

Requires Node.js. Downloads this skill only — not the rest of the repository — into your Claude Code skills folder.

Without Node.js

git clone https://github.com/Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs.git

Clones the whole repository, then copy the skill’s own directory into your skills folder yourself.

In this catalog

Source file: 01-model-architecture/nanogpt/SKILL.md in Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs
Installs to: ~/.claude/skills/nanogpt
Collection: One of 50 skills cataloged from this repository
Category: AI Engineering — 3670 skills

What nanoGPT does

A minimal, hackable GPT implementation in ~300 lines of PyTorch for learning transformer architectures from scratch. Ideal for education, prototyping, and training small language models on limited hardware.

nanoGPT is cataloged under AI Engineering on DirSkills. nanoGPT comes from a repository tagged ai, ai-research, claude, claude-code and claude-skills.

Documentation

README

Excerpt

nanoGPT - Minimalist GPT Training

Quick start

nanoGPT is a simplified GPT implementation designed for learning and experimentation.

Installation:

pip install torch numpy transformers datasets tiktoken wandb tqdm

Train on Shakespeare (CPU-friendly):

# Prepare data
python data/shakespeare_char/prepare.py

# Train (5 minutes on CPU)
python train.py config/train_shakespeare_char.py

# Generate text
python sample.py --out_dir=out-shakespeare-char

Output:

ROMEO:
What say'st thou? Shall I speak, and be a man?

JULIET:
I am afeard, and yet I'll speak; for thou art
One that hath been a man, and yet I know not
What thou art.

Common workflows

Workflow 1: Character-level Shakespeare

This is the opening of the README. Read the full README on GitHub.

Frequently asked about nanoGPT

What else does Orchestra-Research publish alongside nanoGPT?
nanoGPT is one of 50 skills that DirSkills catalogs from Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs, the repository it ships in. Its siblings there include AWQ Quantization, Autoresearch and Axolotl. Each one is a separate skill with its own page in this directory, installs the same way nanoGPT does, and is maintained by Orchestra-Research in that same repository. The rest of the collection is listed on the Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs page.
How does nanoGPT compare to other AI Engineering skills?
nanoGPT ranks #350 by stars among the 3670 AI Engineering skills in this catalog. The most-starred ones next to it are Architecture Decision Records, AI-First Engineering and Agentic OS. DirSkills ranks by the star count of the repository each skill ships in, so that order reflects how popular those repositories are rather than any review of nanoGPT against them. Open each page to compare what they document and how they install.