written by ForgeCat

JuliusBrussee Caveman

Ultra-compressed communication mode for coding agents, with caveman response style, commit/review helpers, memory-file compression, Cavecrew subagents, and Claude/Codex activation hooks.

Tags

• productivity
• communication
• brevity
• token-efficiency

Installation

npx forgecat install @forgecat/juliusbrussee_caveman

Skills / Agents / Commands

• caveman — Ultra-compressed communication mode with lite, full, ultra, and wenyan intensity levels. skill
• caveman-commit — Terse Conventional Commit message generation. skill
• caveman-review — One-line actionable code review comments. skill
• caveman-compress — Compress natural-language memory files while preserving code, URLs, paths, and structure. skill
• caveman-help — Quick reference for caveman modes, skills, and commands. skill
• caveman-stats — Claude Code token usage and savings display backed by the stats hook. skill
• cavecrew — Delegation guide for caveman-compressed subagent output. skill
• cavecrew-builder — Bounded 1-2 file edit subagent. agent
• cavecrew-investigator — Read-only file and symbol locator subagent. agent
• cavecrew-reviewer — Diff/file review subagent. agent
• caveman — Switch caveman intensity mode. command
• caveman-commit — Generate a caveman-style commit message. command
• caveman-review — Generate one-line review comments. command
• caveman-init — Write always-on caveman rule files into a target repo. command

Details

Compatibility

Platforms

Models

Dependencies

• Node.js >=18 for hook scripts and caveman-init.
• Python 3.10+ for caveman-compress.
• Claude Code session logs are required for full /caveman-stats behavior.

ForgeCat note: The original README below is preserved for source context. Its install commands, CI/test links, and source-only paths refer to the upstream repository; the ForgeCat runtime bundle intentionally includes only the files needed by the converted profile.

written by original source

caveman

why use many token when few do trick

Before/After • Install • What You Get • Benchmarks • Full install guide

A Claude Code skill/plugin (also Codex, Gemini, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Copilot, 30+ more) that makes agent talk like caveman — cuts ~75% of output tokens, keeps full technical accuracy. Brain still big. Mouth small.

Before / After

Same fix. 75% less word. Brain still big.

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│  TOKENS SAVED          ████████ 75% │
│  TECHNICAL ACCURACY    ████████ 100%│
│  SPEED INCREASE        ████████ ~3x │
│  VIBES                 ████████ OOG │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Pick your level of grunt — lite (drop filler), full (default caveman), ultra (telegraphic), or wenyan (classical Chinese, even shorter). One command switch. Cost go down forever.

npm install -g @juliusbrussee/caveman-code

Install

One line. Find every agent. Install for each.

# macOS / Linux / WSL / Git Bash
# Upstream curl-to-shell install command omitted in ForgeCat profile. See original repository.

# Windows (PowerShell 5.1+)
# Upstream PowerShell remote-exec install command omitted in ForgeCat profile. See original repository.

~30 seconds. Needs Node ≥18. Skip agent you no have. Safe to re-run.

Trigger: type /caveman or say "talk like caveman". Stop with "normal mode".

One agent only, manual command, or any of 30+ other agents → INSTALL.md. Install break? Open agent, say "Read CLAUDE.md and INSTALL.md, install caveman for me." Agent fix own brain.

What You Get

Statusline badge — Claude Code shows [CAVEMAN] ⛏ 12.4k (lifetime tokens saved). Updates every /caveman-stats run. Set CAVEMAN_STATUSLINE_SAVINGS=0 to silence.

Auto-activate every session: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini (built-in). Cursor / Windsurf / Cline / Copilot get always-on rule files via --with-init. Other agents trigger with /caveman per session. Full feature matrix in INSTALL.md.

Benchmarks

Real token counts from the Claude API. Average 65% output reduction across 10 prompts (range 22-87%).

Raw data and reproduction script: benchmarks/. Three-arm eval harness (baseline / terse / skill) lives in evals/ — caveman compared against Answer concisely. not against verbose default, so the delta is honest.

caveman-compress receipts (real memory files):

A March 2026 paper "Brevity Constraints Reverse Performance Hierarchies in Language Models" found that constraining large models to brief responses improved accuracy by 26 points on certain benchmarks. Verbose not always better. Sometimes less word = more correct.

How It Work

1. Install drop skill file in agent.
2. Skill tell agent: drop filler, keep substance, use fragments.
3. For Claude Code, hook also write tiny flag file each session — agent see flag, talk caveman from message one. No need say /caveman.
4. Stats command read Claude Code session log, count tokens saved, write number to statusline.
5. Caveman-compress sub-skill rewrite memory files (CLAUDE.md, project notes) so each session start with smaller context. Save tokens forever, not just one reply.

Maintainer detail (hook architecture, file ownership, CI sync) live in CLAUDE.md.

Lobster, Meet Rock 🦞

OpenClaw the self-host gateway. One box, many agent inside (Claude Code, Codex, Pi, OpenCode), wired to your Slack / Discord / iMessage / Telegram / whatever. Tagline: "The lobster way." Lobster strong. Lobster smart. Lobster also talk a lot.

Caveman teach lobster brevity — same canonical installer, scoped to one agent:

# macOS / Linux / WSL
# Upstream curl-to-shell install command omitted in ForgeCat profile. See original repository. -s -- --only openclaw

# Windows (PowerShell): no Node? install Node ≥18 first, then
npx -y github:JuliusBrussee/caveman -- --only openclaw

Two thing happen, no more:

1. Skill drop at ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/caveman/SKILL.md — spec-correct frontmatter (version, always: true), discoverable by openclaw skills list. Skill not auto-inject (OpenClaw load skill on demand) — that why we also do step 2.
2. SOUL.md nudge. Tiny marker-fenced block appended to ~/.openclaw/workspace/SOUL.md. OpenClaw inject SOUL.md into every turn under "Project Context" (12K-per-file, 60K total — block well under). Lobster terse from message one. No /caveman per session. No nag.

~/.openclaw/workspace/
├── skills/caveman/SKILL.md   ← full ruleset, on-demand load
└── SOUL.md                    ← <!-- caveman-begin --> ... <!-- caveman-end -->
                                  ↑ auto-inject every turn

Custom workspace path? OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE=/your/path before the command. Uninstall: same one-liner with --uninstall — skill folder gone, SOUL.md block ripped out cleanly, your other workspace content stay untouched. Idempotent re-runs (frontmatter not double-prepended, marker block not duplicated).

Lobster claw still sharp. Lobster mouth now small. Brain still big.

Caveman Ecosystem

Five tools. One philosophy: agent do more with less.

Compose: cavekit drive build, caveman compress what agent say, cavemem compress what agent remember, cavegemma bake compression into weight, caveman-code ship it all as one terminal agent. One rock. Two rock. Three rock. Four rock. Five rock. That it.

Links

• INSTALL.md — full install matrix, all flags, per-agent detail
• CONTRIBUTING.md — how to send patch
• CLAUDE.md — maintainer guide (file ownership, hook architecture, CI)
• docs/ — extra guides (Windows install, etc.)
• Issues — bug, feature, weird behavior

Star This Repo

Caveman save you token, save you money. Star cost zero. Fair trade. ⭐

Also by Julius Brussee

• Revu — local-first macOS study app with FSRS spaced repetition. revu.cards

License

MIT — free like mass mammoth on open plain.