Caveman Help
Published by juliusbrussee in caveman
What this skill does
It displays commands for using a terse “caveman” style, writing short commit messages and PR comments, and compressing Markdown files. The result is more concise text, though the instructions conflict about whether the style mode should persist. Best for Developers and writers who want terse replies, commit messages, PR comments, or Markdown.
Add Caveman Help to your agent
Review the source and files first. When you are ready, copy the prompt instruction or use the CLI command supported by your environment.
Install with a prompt
Paste this into a compatible coding agent:
add this skill "caveman-help" from https://github.com/juliusbrussee/cavemanInstall with the CLI
Run this command in a controlled environment after reviewing the repository:
npx skills add https://github.com/juliusbrussee/caveman --skill caveman-helpSkill instructions
Caveman Help
Display this reference card when invoked. One-shot — do NOT change mode, write flag files, or persist anything. Output in caveman style.
Modes
| Mode | Trigger | What change |
|---|---|---|
| caveman | /caveman | The voice. Answer first, no fluff, every fact kept. Default. |
| ultracave | /ultracave (alias /caveman ultra) | Grammar stripped. Fragments, one word when enough, each fact once. |
| megacave | /megacave (alias /caveman wenyan) | Classical Chinese 文言文. Far fewer characters, technical terms verbatim. |
Mode stick until changed or session end.
/caveman status reports current mode without changing it. Claude Code and the standalone OpenCode plugin read stored state; other hosts use conversation context and report unknown if no mode is known.
Skills
| Skill | Trigger | What it do |
|---|---|---|
| caveman-commit | /caveman-commit | Terse commit messages. Conventional Commits. ≤50 char subject. |
| caveman-review | /caveman-review | One-line PR comments: L42: bug: user null. Add guard. |
| caveman-compress | /caveman-compress <file> | Compress .md files to caveman prose. Saves ~46% input tokens. |
| caveman-help | /caveman-help | This card. |
Deactivate
Say "stop caveman" or "normal mode". Resume anytime with /caveman.
Language
Keep user's language by default — reply in the language user writes, never switch regardless of example text or multilingual context elsewhere. Compress the style, not the language. Technical terms, code, commands, commit types, and exact error strings stay verbatim unless user ask for translation.
Configure Default Mode
Default mode = caveman. Change it:
Environment variable (highest priority):
export CAVEMAN_DEFAULT_MODE=ultracave
Config file (~/.config/caveman/config.json):
{ "defaultMode": "ultracave" }
For opt-in activation in Claude Code, set defaultMode to manual. Sessions start off; /caveman or talk like caveman activates caveman. off also disables bare-command activation. manual is a startup policy, not a mode. OpenCode still starts in caveman mode because its installer also supplies static activation rules.
Set "off" to suppress automatic and bare-command activation. Use "manual" when bare /caveman should activate.
Resolution: env var > repo config > user config > caveman. Legacy values lite, full, ultra, wenyan* still resolve.
More
Full docs: https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman
Files included
- README.md
- SKILL.md