Score
9.1
/ 10
Installs
414K
Repo Stars
117.6K
Last Updated
0d ago
Quality Ratio
94%
Description
Verified
Language
Go
First Published
Apr 2026
Summary
The Caveman Help agent skill provides an on-demand, quick-reference guide to all the available communication modes and utility skills within the "caveman" system. This agent skill is designed for developers who leverage "caveman" modes to achieve terse AI communication, optimize token usage, or generate specific output formats like commit messages and pull request reviews. It is a well-adopted skill with solid traction. When triggered by phrases such as `/caveman-help` or "what caveman commands", it displays a card detailing various compression modes, including `Lite`, `Full`, `Ultra`, and `Wenyan` variants for different levels of conciseness. It also outlines specialized skills such as `caveman-commit` for generating terse Conventional Commits and `caveman-review` for concise, one-line PR comments, alongside instructions for deactivating or configuring default modes.
Skill Definition
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 answer from the conversation and mark it (not tracked by this host).
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. 33.2% fewer tokens on the repo's five test files. |
| 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