---
id: "action-define-karpathy-triplet"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["00:20:54", "00:21:14"]
tags: ["deployment", "strategy"]
related: ["concept-karpathy-triplet", "framework-karpathy-loop-execution"]
action: "Define one editable file, one objective metric, and one time budget before deploying an auto-optimization loop."
outcome: "A tractable, constrained environment where an auto-agent can successfully iterate without thrashing."
sources: ["s04-karpathy-agent-700"]
sourceVaultSlug: "s04-karpathy-agent-700"
originDay: 4
---
# Define the Karpathy Triplet for a specific process

## Action
Define one editable file, one objective metric, and one time budget before deploying an auto-optimization loop.

## Outcome
A tractable, constrained environment where an auto-agent can successfully iterate without thrashing.

## Detail
Before building an auto-agent, strictly define the three prerequisites of the [[concept-karpathy-triplet|Karpathy Triplet]] for a single business process:

1. **One Editable Surface** — e.g., a specific prompt file, routing config, or tool registry.
2. **One Metric** — a programmatic, objective score tied to business value.
3. **One Time Budget per experiment** — e.g., 5 minutes.

This forces organizational clarity and constrains the AI's search space, preventing the loop from thrashing across too many variables.

## Companion Actions
- [[action-build-eval-infrastructure]] — required to make the metric programmatic.
- [[action-implement-trace-logging]] — required to make optimization surgical.
- [[action-pair-same-models]] — leverages [[concept-model-empathy]].

## Where It Fits
This is the *first* operator action in the deployment playbook — without the triplet, [[framework-karpathy-loop-execution|the execution cycle]] has nothing to converge against.